The Musée Cernuschi (French pronunciation:[myzetʃɛʁnuski]; 'Cernuschi Museum'), officially also the Musée des arts de l'Asie de la Ville de Paris ('Asian Arts Museum of the City of Paris'), is an Asian artmuseum located at 7 avenue Vélasquez, near Parc Monceau, in Paris, France. Its Asian art collection is second in Paris only to that of the Musée Guimet.
The museum was founded in 1898 by Henri Cernuschi (1821–1896) in the mansion that used to be his home. It describes itself as the second-oldest Asian art museum in France, and the fifth-oldest Chinese art museum in Europe.
Following a major renovation project from 2001 to 2005, during which the museum was closed, its total exhibition space reached 3,200 m2. Another renovation was conducted in 2019–2020.[1]
On 2013/0101, the Cernuschi Museum became part of the public institution Paris Musées, together with 13 other museums belonging to the City of Paris.
Collections
Over the years, the museum's collection has gradually grown from nearly 5,000 objects initially to about 15,000 as of 2021. Originally its collections were overwhelmingly of objects from China and Japan, which have been complemented more recently by artefacts from Korea and Vietnam.[1] Some 900 objects are on permanent exhibition. Most prominent is the large Buddha of Meguro, a Japanese bronze from the 18th century, from the original collection of Henri Cernuschi. Other permanent exhibits include:
a fine collection of archaic bronze pieces (15th to 3rd centuries BCE)
Bronze censer (kōro) with dragon made by Kimura Toun (c. 1800–1870)
Vietnam
Bird-shaped emblem, Bronze, 50–400
Platter with phoenix, c. 1450
Censer, 17th century
Korea
Bell, 1311
Epitaph of Yi Kyŏngjik (1577–1640), Calligraphy on porcelain tablets, c. 1640
Notes
^ abEric Lefebvre (2021), "Paris. Musée Cernuschi. Musée des arts de l'Asie de la Ville de Paris. Nouveau parcours des collections permanentes", La Revue des Musées de France – Revue du Louvre (2021/3)
^Masterpieces of the collection according to museum site "Chefs-d'œuvre". Musée Cernuschi (in French).