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Origin and history

The National Museum of Asian Arts, known as the Guimet Museum, was founded on the initiative of the Lyon industrialist Émile Guimet (1836-1918), passionate about Asian art and religions. After a trip to Egypt, Greece, and then a world tour in 1876 (Japan, China, India), he gathered a collection of objects that he first exhibited in Lyon in 1879. In 1889, in Paris, he opened a museum dedicated to religions, designed by architect Charles Terrier, in a building inspired by Lyon. The museum, originally private, became a public institution in 2003.

The collections, enriched by donations and archaeological excavations, cover Asian art in its diversity: Khmer statuary, Chinese bronzes, Indian textiles, Japanese prints and Tibetan objects. Major pieces include a porch of the Khmer Temple in Banteay Srei (X century) and Chinese ceramics dating from the Three Kingdoms. In 1945, the museum inherited Asian collections from the Louvre, including ceramics collected by Ernest Grandidier. The library, opened in 1889, retained 100,000 books and 1,500 specialized periodicals.

The museum underwent a major renovation between 1994 and 2001, led by architects Henri and Bruno Gaudin. In 1979, its façade, roofs and library were listed as historical monuments. Today, he also manages the Buddhist Pantheon (Heidelbach Hotel) and the Ennery Museum, both dedicated to Asian art. In 2024-2025, a polemic broke out around the renaming of "Nepal-Tibet" rooms in "Himalayen World", accused of yielding to Chinese political influence.

The collections are organized by geographical areas (India, China, Japan, Korea) and by periods, reflecting the evolution of religious styles and practices (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism). The Riboud Gallery, created thanks to Krishnâ Riboud's legacy in 2003, exhibits rare Asian textiles, while the rotunda features Indian miniatures and Japanese prints. The museum also houses 500,000 historical photographs, including photographs by Samuel Bourne and Felice Beato, documenting Asia since the 1850s.

The institution plays a major cultural role, organizing concerts, dance shows and temporary exhibitions. She collaborates with researchers and publishes reference books such as those from the work of Édouard Chavannes and Victor Segalen. Despite recent controversies, the Guimet Museum remains a world reference for the study and dissemination of Asian arts, with over 11,000 Japanese works, 20,000 Chinese and 1,500 Korean.

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