Presentation and access methods
Located near the Parc Monceau in Paris, this library specialised in the Asian arts curates, manages and enriches a collection open to visitors, students and researchers.
Practical information
3rd floor of the museum (lift for the mobility-impaired)
Opening times
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10am-12.30pm and 2pm-5.45pm, and by appointment
Originally a first-floor reading room, when the museum opened in 1955, it was extended to two freely accessible reading rooms on its move to a new space on the top floor in June 1966. The library has networked documentary software and can be accessed via the web portal of the collections of the City of Paris museums, enhancing its visibility for French and foreign readers. Visitors to the library have access to numerous exhibition and permanent collection catalogues of French and foreign museums, thematic publications, monographs and bibliographies, as well as bulletins published by national and international museums, art journals, auction catalogues and periodicals, whose articles are frequently the focus of study for the benefit of students and researchers.
Presentation
The library is a tribute to the orientalist René Grousset (1885-1952), a French specialist of the Crusades (1096-1291) who was also curator of the Cernuschi Museum from 1933 to 1952. A man of many interests, he studied a wide variety of subjects, as his bibliography reflects: Histoire de la Chine, L’Empire des Steppes, La Vie de Gengis Khan, Philosophies indiennes, Sur les traces du bouddha (some of which have been translated into English: The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire, The Empire of the Steppes, The Life of Chingis-Khan, In the Footsteps of the Buddha). The library founded on 1 April 1955 houses his private collection, to which numerous books, catalogues and journals relating to the museum’s Far East collection have been added over the years, about archaeology, bronze, sculpture, ceramics, paintings old and new. Several collections were gifted by private individuals: those of Beurdeley and Schulmann (antique specialists), Étiemble (1909-2002, Professor of Comparative Literature) and, in 2015, Zao Wou-ki 趙無極 (1921-2013, painter and collector); besides the works of numerous anonymous individuals.
Since May 2016, the library’s collection can be consulted in part via the web portal of Paris Musées–City of Paris Museums: http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr
Located on the museum’s top floor, the library has two freely accessible reading rooms, each with 11 seats and wi-fi.
Practical Information
Postal address: Musée Cernuschi, Musée des Arts de l’Asie de la Ville de Paris, 7 avenue Vélasquez, 75008 Paris, France
Location: 3rd floor of the museum (lift for the mobility-impaired)
Consultation: on-site only, on presentation of ID
Opening times: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10am-12.30pm and 2pm-5.45pm, and by appointment
Contact: tel +33 (0)1 53 96 21 64; fax +33 (0)1 53 96 21 96