The Chinese Museum or ''musée chinois'' is a section of the

Palace of Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...

that keeps artifacts from

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the

Kingdom of Siam Kingdom of Siam may refer to: * Sukhothai Kingdom (1238–1351) * Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351–1767) * Thonburi Kingdom (1768–1782) * Rattanakosin Kingdom (1782–1932) * Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and official ...

, and other Asian countries, including diplomatic gifts and

plunder Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

from the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

. Opened in 1863 by

Empress Eugénie An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

, it is one of the world's oldest museums specifically dedicated to

Asian art The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The major regions of Asia include Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia. Central Asian art primarily c ...

Background

France significantly increased its diplomatic and military activism in Asia during the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, after a century-long pause following its decisive defeat by Great Britain during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

. It joined the UK and participated in the

between 1856 and 1860, including the looting of the

Old Summer Palace The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...

and

Summer Palace The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarter ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in October 1860. Also in 1856,

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

sent

Charles de Montigny Louis Charles de Montigny (1805–1868) was a French diplomat who was active in Asia during the 19th century. Biography He was the first French consul in Shanghai from 23 January 1848 to 10 June 1853. He founded the Shanghai French Concession ...

on an embassy to King

Mongkut Mongkut ( th, มงกุฏ; 18 October 18041 October 1868) was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, titled Rama IV. He ruled from 1851 to 1868. His full title in Thai was ''Phra Bat Somdet Phra Menthora Ramathibod ...

of the Rattanakosin Kingdom of Siam, reviving high-level diplomatic contacts that had flourished at the time of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

and King

Narai King Narai the Great ( th, สมเด็จพระนารายณ์มหาราช, , ) or Ramathibodi III ( th, รามาธิบดีที่ ๓ ) was the 27th monarch of Ayutthaya Kingdom, the 4th and last monarch of the Pr ...

of the

Ayutthaya Kingdom The Ayutthaya Kingdom (; th, อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ) was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom is conside ...

during the 1680s. In 1858, Napoleon III's representatives concluded the

Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan (Japanese: 日仏修好通商条約) (1858) opened diplomatic relations and trade between the two counties. Description The treaty was signed in Edo on October 9, 1858, by Jean-Baptist ...

, and separately the French military started the Cochinchina campaign, establishing a foothold in what is now Southern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. In 1863, France went on to establish a protectorate in Cambodia, and in 1866 it launched its ill-fated expedition to Korea. In 1867 the Exposition Universelle would trigger a fashion and artistic frenzy for ''

Japonisme ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japon ...

''. In 1861 Mongkut sent an embassy in return, which was ceremonially received on 27 June 1861 by

and

in the great 16th-century ballroom of the

that was one of their favorite residences. Jean-Leon Gerome 001

History

About 300 or 400 objects from the

looting of 1860, many dating from the reign of the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...

, were presented by French officers to the imperial household as a personal gift. They were initially displayed at the imperial apartment at the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from ...

. Eugénie combined some of them with the Siam embassy gifts of 1861 to form the core of the Asian art collection she would display in Fontainebleau, which she complemented with other diplomatic and non-diplomatic gifts, objects confiscated by the state during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and kept since then at the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public library, public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, o ...

, and acquisitions she made on the art market using the Imperial household's personal budget. In addition to Chinese and Siamese artifacts she added objects from Cambodia, Japan, Korea, and Tibet. Eugénie intended the museum as a private space where she would entertain guests and friends, rather than a public exhibition space. She located it on the ground floor of the , a garden-facing building of the palace. The rooms were redecorated by palace architect Alexis Paccard. The main exhibition room is decorated with

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

and 18th-century

folding screen A folding screen, also known as pingfeng (), is a type of free-standing furniture consisting of several frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. They have practical and decorative uses, and can be made in a variet ...

panels. The adjacent drawing room includes a billiard table and a piano for entertainment. The whole suite was inaugurated by the empress on 14 June 1863. The museum has been preserved in a layout largely similar to that of the 1860s. In 1905, it received additional objects from the ethnographical collections of the Musée de Marine, then hosted in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

and short of space there. It was renovated in 1988.

Robberies

There was a robbery at the museum in 1995, with fifteen objects stolen of which nine were later recovered. In the early hours of 1 March 2015, the museum was robbed of 15-20 precious Chinese and Siamese objects, including a ceremonial crown that was the centerpiece of the Siamese gift package of 1861. In a 2018 article published in '' GQ'', journalist Alex W. Palmer suggests a connection between the 2015 robbery and the longstanding promotion by the Chinese party/state of emotional grievances about the

and especially the objects looted from the

. Yet another robbery attempt was stopped by authorities in 2019.

Gallery

File:Le Gros Pavillon - Fontainebleau.jpg, The houses the Chinese Museum on its ground floor File:Musee Chinois Fontainebleau.jpg, Main exhibition room File:Chinese Museum Palace of Fontainebleau.jpg, Exhibits in the Chinese Museum File:Panel Vase Fontainebleau.jpg, Details of exhibits File:Palanquin Chinese Museum.jpg, Royal

palanquin The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the el ...

from Siam File:Pot à pinceaux Dynastie Qing Fontainebleau 30122016 1.jpg, Brushholder in

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

File:Vase Cristal de roche Dynastie Qing 30122016.jpg, Vase in

rock crystal Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

Qianlong The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...

era File:Bol à couvercle Gousse de lotus Dynastie Qing Fontainebleau 30122016.jpg, Covered bowl in

jadeite Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition sodium, Naaluminium, Alsilicon, Si2oxygen, O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, bu ...

File:Coupe et soucoupe Agate Dynastie Qing 30122016.jpg, Cup and cupholder in

agate Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Ancie ...

Yongzheng , regnal name = , posthumous name = Emperor Jingtian Changyun Jianzhong Biaozhen Wenwu Yingming Kuanren Xinyi Ruisheng Daxiao Zhicheng Xian()Manchu: Temgetulehe hūwangdi () , temple name = Shizong()Manchu: Šidzung () , house = Aisin Gioro ...

era File:Tasse et présentoir Dynastie Qing Fontainebleau 30122016.jpg,

jade cup on a gold stand, one of the Siamese embassy's gifts

Notes

{{reflist Fontainebleau Museums in Seine-et-Marne Asian art museums in France Art museums established in 1863

Background

History

Robberies

Gallery

See also

Notes