Painting, sculpture, ceramics, lacquerware, furniture, architecture, Persian and Turkish carpets

Spanning from c. 6000 BCE to the present day, the delights of the East Asian Art department include some of the Museum’s earliest purchases. Paintings and sculptures from China and Japan; furniture and decorative arts (among them important collections of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean ceramics); an outstanding group of Chinese T’ang dynasty tomb figures; and the Joseph Lees Williams Memorial Collection of Persian and Turkish carpets are just a few of the department’s many distinguished holdings. Also of note is one of the most highly regarded Southeast Asian sculptures in a Western collection, a monumental 7th-century Khmer sandstone sculpture of Avalokiteshvara, Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion. Remarkable architectural settings--a bamboo-edged Japanese teahouse and temple, a reception hall from a 17th-century Chinese palace, and a scholar’s study from Beijing--enrich the collections immeasurably and are especially popular with visitors. Today, the department is home to more than 11,000 works of art that underscore the region’s diversity and richness.

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