Museum of Asian Art, Asian art museum in Spianada Square, Greece.
The Museum of Asian Art occupies the Palace of Saint Michael and Saint George, a neoclassical building on Corfu with formal rooms on the upper floor. The space displays sculptures, ceramics, and traditional weapons gathered from multiple Asian countries.
Gregorios Manos, Greek ambassador to Austria, bought about 9,500 Chinese, Korean and Japanese pieces at auctions in Vienna and Paris. In 1919 he gave them to the Greek state on condition that a Sino-Japanese museum open in Corfu; it opened in 1927. Later gifts from N. Chatzivasileiou and Ch. Chiotakis broadened the collection and led to its renaming as the Museum of Asian Art.
The museum's name changed from Museum of Sino-Japanese Art after Nikolaos Chatzivasileiou, former ambassador to India and Japan, donated Indian, Pakistani, Tibetan and Siamese pieces. Later gifts came from Dutch-based Greek merchant Charilaos Chiotakis and from Petros Almanachos, Iordanis Siniosoglou and Giannis Kollas. Manos catalogued his own collection and is considered the first Greek authority on Far Eastern art.
The museum occupies the upper floor of the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, reached by a staircase from the entrance hall. The rooms follow one another in sequence, so a visit moves through the Chinese, Japanese and Indian collections in order. The palace stands in the centre of Corfu town, a short walk from the Liston and the Old Fortress.
The palace was built during the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands, and its rooms retain ornate furniture and decorations from that period. The museum's oldest object dates to the 11th century BC, among some eleven thousand pieces. Gregorios Manos catalogued his own collection and is regarded as the first Greek authority on Far Eastern art.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,476 contributors worldwide.