Musée Cernuschi

The Musée Cernuschi is the City of Paris museum of Asian art, at 7 avenue Vélasquez in the 8th arrondissement, on a private avenue opening onto Parc Monceau. Its free permanent collection covers about 5,000 years of art from China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. It suits visitors interested in Asian art and anyone strolling Parc Monceau who wants a quiet hour indoors.

Henri Cernuschi (1821 to 1896), a banker and collector, travelled through Asia and brought back thousands of objects for his mansion here. He returned to Paris from that journey in 1873, and his collection fed the craze for Japanese art known as Japonisme. A 2023 exhibition marked 150 years since his return. He left his home and collection to the City of Paris, and the museum opened in 1898. A renovation from 2001 to 2005 gave it about 3,200 square metres, and the permanent galleries were reorganised again in 2019 and 2020.

The collection began with about 5,000 objects and has grown to roughly 15,000, of which around 900 are on display. The main hall is dominated by the Buddha of Meguro, a large 18th-century Japanese bronze that Cernuschi brought back himself.

The Chinese rooms are the core. They hold archaic bronzes, Han dynasty objects, funerary figures from the Northern Wei, Sui and Tang periods, Tang and Song ceramics and gilded bronze funerary masks of the Liao dynasty. Korean and Vietnamese works complete the route, and the museum has a strong group of 20th-century Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean painting, often the subject of its temporary exhibitions.

The permanent collection is free for everyone. Temporary exhibitions are charged (recent shows cost €10, or €8 reduced), though visitors under 18 enter free, as do visitors with disabilities and one companion. The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 and is closed on Monday and on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. There are no evening openings at present. Last entry is about 30 minutes before closing.

Weekday mornings are the quietest. The permanent galleries are compact, so an hour to 90 minutes is enough. A lift makes the museum accessible, and there is a bookshop and a cloakroom.

Monceau on metro line 2 is about 400 metres away, and Villiers (lines 2 and 3) is also close; bus 94 stops at Malesherbes Courcelles. Parc Monceau is beside the museum. The Musée Nissim de Camondo, another collector's house, is about 300 metres away on the other side of the park, the Musée Jacquemart-André about a kilometre away and the Arc de Triomphe about 1.5 kilometres.