MUDEC - Museum of Cultures, Ethnographic and archaeological museum in Milan, Italy
MUDEC is an ethnographic and archaeological museum in Milan that displays collections from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. The exhibition spaces feature artifacts, artworks, and cultural objects that illustrate how different civilizations have lived and created.
The ethnographic collections were founded in 1838 within Milan's civic natural history museum and were displayed at the Castello Sforzesco from the early 20th century; a 1943 bombing damaged them severely. In the early 1990s the city bought the disused Ansaldo steelworks in Porta Genova, and David Chipperfield won the 1999-2000 competition for the new building, opened in 2015.
The permanent display, opened in 2021 as "Milano Globale. Il mondo visto da qui", is arranged in six sections that trace how the collection itself grew: a Baroque cabinet of curiosities assembled by canon Manfredo Settala (1600–1680), objects brought back by missionaries and explorers, pieces added under colonial rule, Milanese collectors' interest in Far Eastern textiles linked to the silk trade, the 1906 Milan World's Fair, and wartime storage and restoration. The museum's logo, designed in 2015 by Studio FM Milano, is an anthropomorphic "M" based on objects in the collections.
The museum is open most days with extended evening hours on certain weekdays, so check current opening times before your visit. Plan enough time to move through the different exhibition areas at your own pace and take in the displays.
The museum conducts systematic research to document the origins of its objects and how they came to be in the collection. This work reveals the often-complex stories behind each piece on display.
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