Museum of Oriental Art, Italy

The Museum of Oriental Art in Turin (MAO), inaugurated in late 2008 under the Fondazione Torino Musei, is one of the few Italian institutions devoted entirely to Asian art — unusual for Turin, a city with a strong Oriental Studies tradition but no single great collector's legacy like other European cities.

Its permanent collections grew from scattered municipal and regional holdings: Gandhāran friezes recovered from Swāt in the 1950s by IsMEO with Turin University's Centro Scavi, Islamic pottery and Ottoman velvets from the Civic Museum of Ancient Art, Tibetan thang-ka and book covers plus Japanese woodcuts gathered by the Piedmont Region in the 1980s, and ancient Chinese art from the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation (1990s). A 2000s acquisition campaign backed by the Compagnia di Sanpaolo Foundation, plus long-term loans from banks and private collectors, significantly expanded the holdings.

Housed in the 17th-18th century Palazzo Mazzonis, the museum is arranged in five zones: South and Southeast Asia (religious art of India, first floor east wing), China (ancient funerary objects, first floor north wing), Japan (religious and secular objects, first-second floor west wing), the Himalayan region (Buddhist art of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, third floor), and Islamic countries (Mediterranean to Central Asia, fourth floor). The ground floor hosts temporary exhibitions.

Permanent collections: over 2,200 artworks — China, mostly Neolithic-10th century CE (36%: terracotta, pottery, bronzes, wood); Japan, 11th-early 20th century (30%: sculpture, paintings, prints, lacquer, armour, textiles); South/Southeast Asia, 1st-19th century (14%: stone, bronze, stucco, wood sculpture); Islamic countries, 8th-18th century (11%: pottery, bronzes, textiles, manuscripts); Himalayan region, 13th-19th century (9%: sculpture, painting, books, ritual objects).