World Museums

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The National Palace Museum In Taipei is the National Palace Museum, in which is preserved and enormous amount of art and artifact from all of China's 6,000-year history. The National Palace Museum collection was originally the Imperial collection until Chiang liberated it. It was then moved several times until finally the Communists started causing trouble; then the whole thing was shipped to Taiwan. This is probably a good thing, since otherwise it would have been destroyed in the cultural revolution.

The Semitic Museum The Semitic Museum was founded in 1898, and moved into its present location in 1903. It originally was the home of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, a departmental library, a repository for research collections, a public educational institute, and a center for archaeological exploration. Among the Museum's early achievements are the first scientific excavations in the Holy Land (at Samaria in 1907-1912) and important excavations at Nuzi and the Sinai, where the earliest alphabet was found. During World War II, the Museum was taken over by the Navy and closed to the public. In the 1970s, it resumed its academic activities, and today is again home to the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and to the University's collections of Near Eastern archaeological artifacts. These artifacts comprise over 40,000 items, including pottery, cylinder seals, sculpture, coins and cuneiform tablets. Most are from museum-sponsored excavations in Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, and Tunisia. The Museum is dedicated to the use of these collections for teaching, research and publication of Near Eastern archaeology, history, and culture.

Tareq Rajab Museum The Museum was built up and run privately by the Rajab family. It was opened to the general public in 1980. The Museum is divided into two main sections of Islamic Art:

SECTION A

This Section deals with calligraphy, pottery, metalwork, glass, wood, ivory and jade carvings of the Islamic world. Early calligraphy is presented in a separate small room, showing pages from the Holy Qur'an, dating back to the first three centuries of the Islamic period. It also contains an early dated Qur'an written on parchment, dating to 393AH/AD1002. Later examples display calligraphic panels., inscriptions which were cut, or in brail script. A collection of Holy Qur'ans from small to large examples. A treatise of the 9th century scholar al-kindi on optics. A page fragment from the timurid Prince Baysunqur's Qur'an. Pottery The pottery section presents the full history of this art form, starting from pre-Islamic time up to the 19th century. So far the only known dated piece of this type of pottery. It is decorated with a beautiful written kuffic inscription, giving a quotation from the the Holy Qur'an. So far the earliest known ceramic object with a Quranic inscription. Metal Work The large selection of metalwork on display includes objects from the Umayyad period onward. Among them a 7th - 8th century AD bronze ewer, and an early incense burner. Seljuq, Ghaznavid and Ghurid period metalwork is well represented by ewers, flasks, oil-lamps and incense-burners. Of the later periods several bowls, ewers and trays are shown. Glass Work Islamic glass of the early periods are demonstrated by a number of vessels, including perfume flasks, medicine bottles and beakers. Some of these have cut, others applique or trailed decoration. The ivory carvings include an indian musical instrument, a so-called "Sarinda", pen-boxes and another musical instrument from ottoman Turkey, a Kemence. Jade The exhibited jades are all from Mughal India and date from the 17th and 18th centuries, including an extremely rare red and white jade as well. Arms and Armour The arms and armour is shown in several display cabinets and one room is specially dedicated to the swords and daggers of the Near and Middle East. There is also a special and extremely rare object, a ceremonial shield, carved out of buffalo hide, made at Ahmadabad in India during the 16th century. Lacquer work Islamic lacquerwork is presented in a special cabinet and it includes a 14h Mamluk box, a late 14th or early 15th century Qur'an stand, or Rahla, a signed and dated Kashmir mirror-case and many Qajar pen-boxes and mirror-cases.

SECTION B

This part of the Museum deals with the costumes, textiles, embroideries and jewellery of the Islamic world, but also includes relevent objects from Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. The objects are exhibited in the following order: The gulf countries: Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the Yemen. The exibited objects include jewellery, costumes and textiles of these countries. This is followed by a detailed display of folk jewellery of other near and Middle Eastern countries and also of India, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. The collection is particularly rich in Syrian and Palestinian costumes, while its folk jewellery is perhaps one of the richest and largest in the world. In both sections of the museum there are large numbers of swords, daggers, some old Islamic fire-arms and gun-powder holders. Likewise, an outstanding collection of musical instruments from almost every part of the Oriental world are exhibited. There is a special collection of jewellery, which once, so it is claimed, belonged to the last Emir of Bukhara.

The Living Art Museum

The Living Art Museum owns a very large collection of art and source material, donated by members of the Living Art Museum Association and others. When the museum was founded, a provision was incorporated in its Organization Charter, stipulating that its members would donate one work upon joining the Association and subsequently every few years. These provisions have not been strictly observed, as it soon became evident that storage space, as well as funds for the preservation and maintenance of the art collection were insufficient. Furthermore, one of the main objectives of the Living Art Museum, that of collecting contemporary art, has encouraged the official/state-owned art museums to pay more attention to contemporary art. Nevertheless, the Living Art Museum owns a fairly extensive art collection and has succeeded in preserving a unique part of Iceland's art history. For example, the Museum owns the largest artists books collection in the country, one of the world's largest collections of the work of German-Swiss artist Dieter Roth, as well as works by most members of the SÚM Group, Jón Gunnar Árnason, Magnús Pálsson, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, the brothers Sigurður Guðmundsson and Kristján Guðmundsson, Róska, Arnar Herbertsson, Magnús Tómasson, Gylfi GIacute;slason, Sigurjón Jóhannsson, Hildur Hákonardóttir and Guðbergur Bergsson. The Museum owns works by many of the nation's best-known younger artists and the collection is growing steadily. The collection also includes works by some 50 foreign artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Pieter Holstein, Richard Hamilton, Dorothy Iannone, Jan Voss, Wolf Vostell, Douwe Jan Bakker, Emmet Williams, Robert Filiou, Nini Tang, Peter Angermann, John Armleder, Geoffrey Hendriks, Jan Knap, Alan Johnston, Peter Mönning, Bengt Adlers and Franz Graf. All works of art in the Museum's possession are selected by the artists themselves and not by specialists of art institutions. A catalogue of the art collection of the Living Art Museum is accessible on a digital database.

The Prince of Wales Museum of West India

In the early years of the twentieth century, some prominent citizens of Bombay decided to set up a Museum with the help of the government to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales. One of the resolutions of the committee at its meeting on June 22, 1904 was, "The building should have a handsome and noble structure befitting the site selected, and in keeping with the best style of local architecture." The committee spared no effort to realize this dream. On March 1, 1907, the then government of Bombay handed over to the museum committee a spot of land known as the "Crescent Site", situated at the southern end of the present Mahatma Gandhi Road. After an open competition for the design, George Wittet was commissioned to design the Museum building in 1909. George Wittet had collaborated with John Begg in the construction of the General Post Office building. His other works in Bombay include the Court of Small Causes and the magnificent Gateway of India.