The core collection of the Museum of Oriental Art in Venice includes 2/3 of the artworks bought by Prince Henry of Bourbon between 1887 and 1889, during his journey in Eastern Asia. Set up on the second floor of Vendramin Calergi palace, after the death of Henry the collection was sold to the Viennese firm C. Trau, that started the sale in 1907, until the outbreak of the First World War. When Italy declared war on Austria, the properties of the firm in Venice were frozen, as Trau was an enemy citizen. After the end of the hostilities the collection was seized and became property of the Italian State as compensation for war damages.

Since 1925 the superintendent Gino Fogolari and the first director of the Museum, Nino Barbantini set the first State Museum of Oriental Art in Ca’ Pesaro, inaugurated on 3 May 1928 under the name of Marco Polo Museum. They exposed a selection of artistic pieces, while, in 1935 and in 1942, a huge number of ethnographic pieces, that were not exposed in Ca’ Pesaro, were given as temporary safekeeping to Padua University. Many porcelains are now in Faenza Museum and some other pieces are in Florence, Art Institute, as temporary safekeeping.

During the years, some other acquisitions have been added to the main core. Nowadays, along the seven rooms dedicated to Japan, the visitor can see Japanese weapons and armours belonged to the feudal lords, lacquer saddles and stirrups, a rare palanquin for noble ladies, paintings on silk and paper, silk dresses and musical instruments. Two entire rooms are dedicated to precious lacquer objects coming from the nobles’ dowries. The artworks belong mainly to the Edo period (1603-1868), but older artworks are not missing, as the two beautiful wooden statue of Kamakura period (1185-1333) or blades of Muromachi period (1392-1568). The Chinese section exposes jades and porcelains of many manufactures and a precious painted scroll. In the room dedicated to the South-Eastern Asia there are silvers, porcelains and statues from Thailand, ceremonial objects in Burma lacquer, Indonesian Kris, wayang kulit puppets and batik. Some artworks are exposed in rotation, while some others, like woodblocks, Buddhist altars, Chinese dresses or pieces of furniture are put in the storage for conservative reasons. catalogo.beniculturali.it, indicando nella stringa di ricerca Museo d’Arte Orientale. Quella proposta nelle nostre pagine è solo una piccola selezione di opere.