Antique Treasures

Since 1997, the Shumei Family Collection has been housed in a new museum near Kyoto designed by I.M. Pei.

It is a remarkable collection of exceptional works of art dating from Ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome, from Achaemenidian and Sasanian artworks to magnificent examples of Chinese art.

For the first time the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is able to show a selection from this collection in Europe. Each of the carefully chosen 60 objects is of the highest quality and represents the high-point of artistic craftsmanship in the ancient cultures of Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome.

On show will be Egyptian wood and silver statues of nobles and gods, Greek and Roman bronze objects, and magnificent gold and silver vessels from Bactria and north-western Iran, as well as gilded silver rhyta (drinking horns) and inlaid gold jewellery dating from the Achaemenidian period, which are marked by the precious metals used, their attractive shapes, their design and decoration and particularly by the remarkable quality of workmanship they document.