Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva

The Place

For forty-five years, the Musée Barbier-Mueller, founded in 1977, has been located in the heart of Geneva’s Old Town, a few steps away from the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre. It occupies the ground floor and basement of a historic sixteenth-century building. Its intimate atmosphere invites contemplation and dialogue with the works exhibited. In the summer months, a pretty inner courtyard offers a refreshing place to relax.

Mission

The aim of the Musée Barbier-Mueller is to preserve, study, publish and exhibit a collection begun by Josef Mueller in 1907 and continued by his heirs up to our own time. This collection, the largest in the world in private hands, now has several thousand pieces from tribal and classical antiquity, as well as sculptures, fabrics and ornaments from various cultures of Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas. A number of these works are considered indispensable masterpieces with great historical value.

Exhibitions

The Musée Barbier-Mueller holds two thematic exhibitions every year, assembling a selection of objects from its collection. Each of the four rooms in the basement accommodates, over a longer period of time, pieces that share a geographical or cultural provenance. The itinerant exhibitions organized by the Musée Barbier-Mueller, the loans granted to other institutions and its publications have earned it international recognition.

Arts & Cultures is an annual magazine published in English and French for an audience of connoisseurs and curious readers. It is an anthology of non-Western arts with articles written by various specialists (anthropologists, historians, art historians, reporters…) conveying iconographic and stylistic studies of objects, archaeological excavation reports, interviews, travel diaries across all continents, from prehistory to our days. Detailed geographical maps, high quality photographs and archival documents enhance texts set up in elegant and lively layouts.

Publication of the Association of Friends of the Musée Barbier-Mueller, the magazine is distributed in bookshops. It is also available at the museum bookshop and online in this section. If you become a Friend of the museum, you can download all Arts & Cultures issues for free with a password which will be given to you at the time of your subscription.