Zhang Lu: Playing zither for a friend (detail), China, 16th century – © Jürgen Liepe

 

From Chinese porcelain to Japanese painting

The works of art and cultural artefacts at the Museum of Asian Art are as diverse as the various Asian cultures themselves. The museum houses one of the most important collections worldwide of art from the Indo-Asian cultural region dating from the 4th millennium BC to the present day.

Key focal areas include early Indian sculpture and Silk Route art, as well as art from China, Japan and Korea on display in individual galleries and as part of an academic collection. Also notable is the acclaimed Turfan collection, named after the first of four royal Prussian expeditions along the northern Silk Route (now Xinjiang, People's Republic of China) between 1902 and 1914: the highlight is a full-scale reconstruction of a quadratic temple decorated with the original murals from Cave 123 in the Kucha oasis.

The museum is located at the Dahlem campus of the Berlin State Museums together with the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of European Cultures.