Guimet Museum

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The Guimet Museum in Paris, 2005.

The Guimet Museum (French: Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet or Musée Guimet) is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside Asia.

The museum which was first located at Lyon in 1879 and was handed over to the state and transferred to Paris in 1885, was founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, an industrialist. Devoted to travel, Guimet was in 1876 commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, and the museum contains many of the fruits of this expedition, including a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and many objects relating not merely to the religions of the East but also to those of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. One of its wings, the Panthéon Bouddhique, displays religious artworks.

Panoramic view of the library in the Guimet Museum.

From December 2006 to April 2007, the museum harboured the collections of the Kabul Museum, with archaeological pieces from the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum, and the Indo-Scythian treasure of Tillia Tepe

[edit] Works of Art of the Guimet Museum

[edit] Greco-Buddhist art

Gandhara Buddha, 1st-2nd century CE.	Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, northern Pakistan.	Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE.	Stone palette of a Nereid sea-goddess riding a Ketos sea-monster, Sirkap, 2nd century BCE.
Wine-drinking and music, Hadda, 1st-2nd century CE.	A Corinthian capitol with a Buddha at its center, 2nd century CE, Surk Kotal, Afghanistan.	The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda.	The Bodhisattva Maitreya, 2nd century, Gandhara.
Scene of the life of the Buddha. 2nd-3rd century. Gandhara.	Portraits from the site of Hadda, 3rd century CE.

[edit] Serindian art

"Heroic gesture of the Bodhisattva", 6th-7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang).

Head of a Bodhisattva, 6th-7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang).

[edit] Chinese art

Han Dynasty Horse (1st-2nd century C.E.)	Buddha triad, Eastern Wei (534-550), China.	Tang Dynasty Foreign Merchant	Northern Qi depiction of Sogdians
A tag describing a Chinese artifact, with both Chinese and French captions	A sitting celadon lion, dated 11th to 12th century, Song Dynasty.	A porcelain vase with design of men fighting on horseback, from the Jiajing reign period (1521–1567), Ming Dynasty.	A round sancai dish from the Tang Dynasty, 8th to 9th century

[edit] Indian art

An aniconic representation of Mara's assault on the Buddha, 2nd century CE, Amaravati, Guntur, India.	The Bodhisattva Maitreya, 2nd century CE, Mathura.	A Buddha, 2nd century, Mathura.	Buddha of the Gupta period, 5th century, Mathura.
Head of a Buddha, Gupta period, 6th century.	Buddha and Bodhisattvas, 11th century, Pala Empire.