The Japanese bronze Buddha
A monumental figure brought back in the 1870s and never moved.
Thomon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vlaemynck Célia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France — CC BY 2.0 · Chatsam — CC BY-SA 3.0
The permanent collection is, as at the City of Paris museums such as the Carnavalet and the Musée d'Art Moderne. Only temporary exhibitions are ticketed. This group of museums is the best of Paris on a limited budget.
The Guimet is far larger, covers all of Asia in depth, is the primary French collection and charges admission. Cernuschi is smaller, concentrated on China, free, and can be seen in ninety minutes. With limited time and budget, start with Cernuschi.
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A museum of Asian art beside Parc Monceau, holding the second most important collection of Chinese art in France after the Guimet, in a private house built by the banker Henri Cernuschi in the nineteenth century. The collection is strong in ancient Chinese bronzes, ceramics and funerary figures, and also covers Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Its best-known piece is a monumental bronze Buddha from Japan, brought back on Cernuschi's journey around Asia in the 1870s and kept in place ever since. The museum's own story is worth knowing: Cernuschi assembled the pieces on a long journey and then left the house and its contents to the city. That pattern is common among Paris's municipal museums — collectors' houses turned into public institutions. An important practical point: the permanent collections of the City of Paris museums are free to enter, with temporary exhibitions ticketed. That makes this among the best free visits in the city. Parc Monceau next door is one of the loveliest gardens in Paris.
A monumental figure brought back in the 1870s and never moved.
The collection's strongest section, among the most important in Europe.
A Paris pattern: collectors' houses left to the city and opened to the public.
Beside Parc Monceau, 8th arrondissement, Paris