The Musée du quai Branly opens wide its doors to enable consultation of the whole of its artefacts collection, comprising 267,417 items, 236,509 of which come from the ethnology laboratory of the Musée de l’Homme, and 22,740 from the former Musée national des arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie. The Musée du quai Branly has acquired 8,168 artefacts since 1998, and over 3,600 artefacts are on exhibition.

view the catalogue and the usage guide

view the artefacts catalogue

consult the usage guide for on-line catalogs

this group comprises four continental patrimonial units:

• Americas,
• Africa,
• Asia,
• Oceania.

Three transversal units present major specific areas of interest:

The collection of 8,831 musical instruments is one of the largest in Europe. Over 8,000 items come from the ethnomusicological department of the Musée de l'Homme, and about 500 from the former Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, to which a number of new acquisitions have been added.

Over 4,000 musical instruments are from Africa, over 2,000 from Asia and America, including 750 pre-Columbian items, and almost 1,000 instruments are of Oceanian or Insulindian origin. Consultation is facilitated by an online musical instrument typology in the form of a thesaurus.

The History Collections comprise 4,987 items connected to discovery and to French colonial history, the oldest dating back to the 17th century. They come from the historical collections of the former Musée national des arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, and from the ethnological laboratory of the Musée de l’Homme. A number of new acquisitions have been made to this collection, which includes dioramas, sculptures, travellers’ notebooks, and Orientalist paintings.

To conduct a complete search of the History collections, continue your search in the media library catalog or perform a combined search.

The textiles collections comprise over 25,000 items. Over 600 new acquisitions have been added to collections obtained from the former Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie and the ethological laboratory of the Musée de l’Homme. To facilitate consultation, two specific thesauri provide garment and materials typologies.

The online catalogue enables discovery of artefacts, whether on exhibition or not, through digitised photographs, some of which give a 3-dimensional ‘in the round’ view.

Informational notes are provided on each artefact, giving its designation and vernacular name along with systematic toponymic and ethnonymic details tracing its history, from the continent in which it originated down to the exact place of collection or manufacture. Much information contained in the notes originally came from somewhat antiquated and mixed sources, and a corrections program implemented from 2003 to 2005 has led to modifications where necessary. Scientific corrections have been complemented by legal data such as verification of means of acquisition, and deposit status and logistics, including artefact dimensions, digitised photographs, and location.

The entire artefacts collection can be studied at the museum’s museotheque.

For more detailed information, consult online conditions.