TEAA

African Art in Paris

Brooks Goddard

African art is on good display at two museums in Paris. Just another reason to visit the Louvre is to see new rooms with its African collection nicely displayed in expansive space. The collection is off on an end of the museum but clearly marked. A newly renovated private museum is the Musee Dapper in the 15th arrondisement. It is a small museum but very nice and contains a small shop and cafe. It is not too far from The National Museum of Asian Art Guimet which houses Asian art and an especially attractive collection of Khmer heads. A $265 million museum devoted to the indigenous art of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania is rising on the banks of the Seine beside the Eiffel Tower. Within a year the Musee du Quai Branly, as it is known, will begin receiving the 270,000 objects in its collection. And early in 2006 President Jacques Chirac is expected to inaugurate what is already considered the principal cultural monument to his 12 years in office.