Musée du quai Branly

The Musée du quai Branly, Jacques Chirac is a museum in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, dedicated to the indigenous arts and cultures of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, it opened on 20 June 2006 as the newest of Paris's major museums, following a tradition of French presidents establishing cultural monuments. The museum holds more than 370,000 objects, with approximately 3,500 on display at any given time across permanent and temporary exhibitions. It functions as both a public museum and a research center, jointly administered by the French Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The institution has been a focal point of international debate regarding the provenance and potential restitution of colonial-era acquisitions, particularly following the 2018 Sarr-Savoy report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron.

The museum's origins trace to long-standing calls by French intellectuals for a major Parisian institution devoted to non-European arts. In 1990, art dealer and African art specialist Jacques Kerchache published a manifesto in Libération, signed by 300 artists, writers, and scholars, advocating that "the masterpieces of the entire world are born free and equal." Kerchache brought this concept to Jacques Chirac, then Mayor of Paris, who upon his election as President of France in 1995 initiated the project. In 1996, Chirac announced the creation of a new museum combining the collections of the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie (MAAO), originally created for the 1931 Colonial Exposition and later repurposed by André Malraux in 1961, and the ethnology laboratory of the Musée de l'Homme, established for the 1937 Paris Exposition. These collections represented different approaches: the MAAO was an art collection managed by art historians, while the Musée de l'Homme was ethnological and anthropological in focus. A decree on 29 July 1998 authorized construction at 29-55 Quai Branly, a 25,000-square-meter site previously intended for an abandoned Mitterrand-era conference center. An international architectural competition in 1999 was won by Jean Nouvel. The museum was officially established in December 1998, with Stéphane Martin named its president. It opened to the public on 23 June 2006, inaugurated by Chirac in the presence of Kofi Annan, Rigoberta Menchú, Paul Okalik, and other dignitaries. On 21 June 2016, the museum was renamed to honor Jacques Chirac. Since 27 May 2020, it has been directed by Emmanuel Kasarhérou, previously director of the Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie.

The museum's collections derive from two centuries of French ethnographic collecting, originating in cabinets of curiosities and national museums established after the French Revolution. The holdings comprise almost 370,000 works from the Neolithic period to the 20th century, alongside 700,000 iconographical pieces and more than 200,000 reference works. The collections span Africa, the Near East, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum explicitly emphasizes artistic qualities rather than organizing displays according to traditional ethnological categories, a curatorial choice that generated internal opposition, including a 1999 strike by Musée de l'Homme staff concerned about the dismantling of scientific collections. The permanent exhibition presents objects geographically rather than thematically, with regions demarcated by colored flooring. Approximately 50 percent of the museum floor is devoted to temporary exhibitions, reflecting an institutional commitment to in-depth exploration of world cultures. A selection of approximately 100 outstanding objects is also displayed in the Pavillon des Sessions at the Louvre, serving as an ambassador for the main institution. The museum's library and media center provide extensive specialist literature, databases, and audiovisual resources, while the Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss hosts concerts, discussions, and film screenings.

The permanent collection displays 3,500 selected objects rotated from the larger holdings to protect sensitive materials. Signature works include a Fang mask from Gabon, considered a masterpiece of African art; a monumental moai ancestor head from Easter Island (Rapa Nui); and an Olmec jade mask from Mexico dating to over 3,000 years ago. The Oceania section features spirit house facades, reliquaries, magical hooks, and ritual masks from regions stretching from Malaysia to the South Pacific, including Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Australia, and New Zealand. The African collection presents approximately 1,000 works organized by region, including archaeological pieces, West African masks and statues from Benin and Nigeria, Kota and Fang reliquary guardians from central and southern Africa, and Ethiopian Christian art. The Americas collection is divided between pre-Hispanic cultures and the period from the 17th century to the present, including Afro-American cultures, with more than 80 percent of displays redesigned since 2006 to incorporate 100,000 recently acquired items. The Asian section presents 19th-century to contemporary works, including Ainu dresses from Japan, Indian saris, Chinese jewelry, Southeast Asian Buddhist art, and Siberian shamanism objects. The Near Eastern and North African holdings include woven Moroccan carpets, traditional embroidered costumes, thousand-year-old face veils, and a dromedary palanquin from Syria. A 19th-century British Columbian totem pole, 45 feet high, stands at the entrance.

The museum building, designed by Jean Nouvel, occupies 40,600 square meters across four structures on a site between the Eiffel Tower and the Alma Bridge. Nouvel's design responds to neighborhood opposition to earlier development plans by incorporating extensive green space: the garden covers two hectares with over 150 plant species, designed by landscape architect Gilles Clément, featuring curved trails and cobblestone paths. A distinctive 200-meter-long, 12-meter-high living wall on the exterior, designed by botanist Patrick Blanc, is planted with exotic vegetation punctuated by windows. The building is elevated on stilts, with one side featuring dark red brises-soleil and another displaying colorful boxes housing museum salons suspended on piers projecting over the garden. The main access is via a curving 600-foot spiraling ramp with a projected video installation by Charles Sandison, intended as a gradual metamorphosis preparing visitors to arrive at the "source." Inside, the museum maintains subdued lighting and an industrial aesthetic with black ceilings and deep red floors, creating an environment that suggests caves and forests. Free-standing transparent display cases create a non-linear, wandering experience without corridors or hallways. The museum was labeled as Architecture contemporaine remarquable in 2016. At dusk, the garden is illuminated by an art installation entitled L'O.

The Musée du quai Branly, Jacques Chirac is located at 37 Quai Branly, 75007 Paris, in the 7th arrondissement on the left bank of the Seine, approximately 500 meters from the Eiffel Tower. The nearest metro stations are Alma-Marceau and Iéna on line 9, with Bir-Hakeim on line 6 and RER C at Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel also nearby. Bus lines 63, 80, and 92 serve the Bosquet-Rapp stop. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:30 am to 7:00 pm, with extended hours until 10:00 pm on Thursdays; it is closed on Mondays. The garden opens at 9:15 am, closing at 7:30 pm or 10:15 pm on Thursdays. Admission to the permanent collections is free on the first Sunday of each month, and free entry applies to visitors under 18, EU citizens under 26, holders of the Paris Museum Pass, and certain other categories. The museum receives approximately 1.15 to 1.5 million visitors annually, with cumulative attendance surpassing 20 million by 2022. Facilities include the panoramic restaurant Les Ombres on the roof terrace, the Café Jacques with park and Eiffel Tower views, a bookstore and shop with fair-trade handicrafts, and parking at Quai Branly, George V, and Joffre École Militaire. The museum is jointly administered by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and since 2009 has participated in the Colline des musées association with three neighboring institutions.