The offices of the Museum of Asia and the Pacific are located in the administrative and residential buildings of a former slaughter house, constructed in 1854 in the late classicist style. Today, the two buildings are surrounded by an "Oriental Oasis", made up of a garden and small-scale wooden Asian architecture. Because of a lack of space, the Museum has no permanent exhibition. Temporary exhibits are displayed at the Museum's three galleries: the Asiatic, Nusantara and the Oriental Art Galleries.
The Museum was founded in 1973, thanks to the committed efforts and passion of Andrzej Wawrzyniak mariner, diplomat and collector, who had spent over twenty years in South-East Asia. Wawrzyniak's collection of Indonesian art, which he eventually donated to the Polish state, included objects from Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi (Celebes), Bali, Flores and other islands of the archipelago. Of particular interest are the collections of krises, ritual and theatrical masks, puppets of the classical Javanese wajang theatre, stone, wooden and terra-cotta sculptures, batik, ikat and tapis fabrics, as well as old and modern Indonesian paintings.
The Chinese collection includes ceramics exported to the South-East Asian countries from China, silver tableware and decorative silver from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, silk costumes, wood engravings and Buddhist sculptures.
The Indian collection includes textiles, miniatures on paper and ivory, puppets from Rajasthan and Gujarat, religious paintings by pats of Orisa and Bengal, Madhubani and Warli folk paintings.
The Afghan collection includes textiles (carpets and namadas), jewellery and metal vessels.
The Vietnamese collection is comprised of wooden, lacquer-coated Buddhist sculptures and paintings by leading contemporary artists on silk and using lacquer technique.
The Buddhist art collection includes objects from Mongolia, Nepal and Tibet, such as thankas, reliquary miniatures, wood engravings, metal statuettes, cult masks and other objects.
The Museum has smaller Japanese, Korean, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Oceanian collections, too. Among its holdings are also paintings, drawings and prints of Oriental subject-matter by Polish artists such as Tadeusz Kulisiewicz, Aleksander Kobzdej, Andrzej Strumillo and Roman Opalka.
Muzeum Azji i Pacyfiku
ul. Solec 24
00-403 Warszawa
Region: mazowieckie
Phone: (+48 22) 629 67 24
Phone/Fax: (+48 22) 621 94 70
WWW: www.muzeumazji.pl
Email: plawmaip@muzeumazji.pl