The Ethnological Museum presents its new permanent exhibition of "Art from Africa", starting from 27 August 2005. These masterpieces could previously be seen at the exhibition "Art from Africa" in Brazil in 2003/2004. That exhibition attracted more than a million visitors, and won two awards. The concept, arrangement and presentation of the exhibition emphasises the significance of art as a central component of the different cultures of Africa. It is arranged in four large groups, starting with an introduction to aspects of the African history of art, followed by figures, performance and design.

The new permanent exhibition makes clear that art from Africa has its own art-historical development, which the Western world failed to understand or recognise for a long time. African art was instead regarded as primitive - a stigma based on the ideology of the colonial age. Beyond that the exhibition points out that art from Africa, in addition to its religious significance, had a multiplicity of functions in African societies.