This collection was founded based on the private collection of Lyon based industrialist Emile Guimet. He left his vast array of Asian antiquities and treasures to the state in his will after dying in the late 19th Century. The collection has been added to throughout the 20th Century, and now is one of the foremost collections of Asian art and cultural arefacts to be kept in the western world. The museum is a popular and centrally located gallery.
