Non-European civilizations

  • America
    The Cinquantenaire Museum is one of the most important museums for Pre-Columbian and American Indian Art.

  • India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka

  • Tibet – Nepal
    Thang-ka (roll paintings), bronze and wooden figures, Buddhist ritual objects are displayed in the gallery devoted to the art of the Himalayas.

  • China
    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.

  • Korea
    The collection of Korean Art is one of the smaller collections and consists chiefly of ceramics. The section is temporarily closed.

  • South-east Asia
    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.

  • Oceania
    The gallery Oceania is closed. But visit our exhibition OCEANIA! More than 200 objects from New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, Hawaii and Easter Island, as well as old maps and world maps, models of ships and archives, are on display for the occasion.

  • Art of the Islamic World
    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.

  • Art of Eastern Christianity
    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).