The collection at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) is characterized by its tremendous variety, encompassing early archeological artefacts, expressive ritual sculptures from different Asian religions, precious examples of applied arts which bear witness to the most highly developed craftwork, as well as the rich pictorial art of Asia. The latter offers equal measures of elaborate narrative and expressive abstract representations. Individual works of contemporary art link together the traditional and the contemporary.
Among the museum’s highlights are the Central Asian murals and sculptures, which predominantly originate from the Buddhist cave temples from the so-called Silk Road. They constitute the link between the sculptures of South and East Asia. Highlights also include the religious sculptures of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, as well as the collections of East Asian painting, Japanese woodcuts and East Asian lacquer objects.
The Berlin-Dahlem site of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and the Ethnologische Museum has been closed since 9 January 2017. You can visit the new presentation of the collections from the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and the Ethnologische Museum at the Humboldt Forum.