Musee du Quai Branly, Paris
A major Paris museum whose permanent collections feature over 3,500 objects of indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas - including some 900 artefacts spanning the length and breadth of the American continent. After walking past strikingly beautiful Amazonian featherwork and life-size examples of Diablada dance costumes from Bolivia, the ancient Mexican displays boast impressive sculptures, musical instruments, masks, ornaments and calendrical objects from Aztec, Huastec (Gulf Coast), Maya, Mixtec and Zapotec cultures.
Just to whet your appetite, the permanent collections on display include the singularly rare Huitizilopochtil greenstone figurine that came to the British Museum for the Moctezuma exhibition, wooden teponaztli tongue-drums, a sceptre made from a deer’s antler, a dog sculpture given to President de Gaulle on a visit to Mexico in 1964, a powerful sculpture of a grandfather carrying his grandchild, a mirror made of fool’s gold, a miniature chac mool figure, and a lot more...
We are already adding some of the objects from the museum to our ‘Artefact in the Spotlight’ section. Enjoy!
Musee du Quai Branly, Paris