Museum of Lacquer Art, Lacquer art museum in Münster, Germany.
The Museum of Lacquer Art was a museum in Münster devoted to lacquer art, owned by BASF Coatings and closed on 1 February 2024. Its collection of around 1,250 objects came from East Asia, Europe and the Islamic world, with red carved lacquer, lacquer painting on furniture and mother-of-pearl inlay among the techniques shown.
The collection began with Erich Zschocke, who worked at the Cologne paint factory Herbig-Haarhaus and in 1955 founded its Herbig-Haarhaus Lacquer Museum. BASF took over the factory and museum in 1968 and bought Kurt Herberts' collection in 1982. Curator Monika Kopplin opened the Museum of Lacquer Art in Münster in 1993; it closed on 1 February 2024, its 1,250 objects passing to the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur.
The museum's name refers to the sap of the Asian lacquer tree, which cannot be transported to Europe; European workshops therefore used oils, resins and binders. Japanese pieces show gold and silver powder trickled through tubes into damp lacquer, while Islamic objects carry tendril patterns and the "rose and nightingale" motif.
The museum closed permanently on 1 February 2024, so there are no opening hours to plan around. Its roughly 1,250 lacquer objects were transferred to the collection of the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster, where visitors can now see them.
The collection combines works from several continental traditions, which sets it apart from specialized lacquer collections that typically focus on a single region. This broad perspective allows visitors to see how lacquer techniques were shared and developed differently across time and borders.
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