Religion is the theme of the ‘India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka’ collection, and the arrangement in this gallery juxtaposes statues of Jainist, Hindu and Buddhist deities.
The ‘China’ collection, arranged thematically, gives a pretty comprehensive picture of the various disciplines of Chinese art: ceramics, jade, bronze, wood sculpture, wall painting, costumes, painting, calligraphy, furniture and decorative art.
An important and unique feature of this collection is that the greater part of it was assembled locally by Belgian collectors during the 19th and 20th centuries; the first items were acquired in 1854.
A part of the gallery Oceania is closed. You can always see the colossal, six-tonne stone sculpture from Easter Island and the small room devoted to the Franco-Belgian Easter Island Expedition of 1934-1935.
The star pieces of the collection are the textiles, whose age, quality and rarity have made them world famous. Highly exceptional is the gold-inlaid helmet of Sultan Ibn Qalawun, dating from ca.1300.
This collection includes a number of Byzantine items, as well as examples of Byzantine art from Greece, Eastern Europe and the Near East, Russia and Ethiopia. Best known internationally is the collection of Coptic textiles (this gallery is closed).
