The Meiyintang collection has been seen in books, but never has it been presented to the public. Congratulations then to Paris’ Musée Guimet for their world exclusive – a chance to see around a hundred ancient Chinese bronzes from literally thousands of years ago…

These bronzes were used for food preparation, right? Wrong. They were mostly used for offering to the gods, and for magic rituals.

As the years, or rather centuries, passed (we’re talking about the 19th century B.C., after all), the decorations and forms evolved to include Taotie masks and fantastical animal forms before becomings (around 5-3 centuries B.C.) completely exuberant objects of ostentation, incrusted with malachite, gold, silver and lacquer.

Make sure you don’t miss the chance to see this incredible workmanship from 2,000 years ago!

To complete your experience there’s and official catalogue (200 pages, 180 colour illustrations, 29€ here on amazon.fr), guided visits (no booking required), conferences and a cycle of films.

Don’t forget that we visited the museum a while back to show you how brilliant it is! You can read our report and see the photos here.

By the way, French-speakers really should take a look at the museum’s Facebook and Twitter pages – for once, they’re updated regularly with some great content! You might also like to read their latest PDF newsletter (here), which has some good info too!

The exhibition Treasures of ancient China – ^Ritual bronzes from the Meiyintang collection is at the Musée Guimet (here) until 10th June 2013/big>

Open every day except Tuesday from 10am – 6pm. Last tickets at 5.15pm. Closed 1st May

Admission: 8€ / 6€ (ticket including the permanent collection – totally worth it – 9.50€ / 7€)

Official site (English version coming Autumn 2013): www.guimet.fr

Facebook: here

Twitter: twitter.com/MuseeGuimet