A world-renowned portal to ancient societies
The Musée Barbier-Mueller houses one of the world’s greatest collections of tribal art. As early as 1907, Josef Mueller began shifting his collecting focus away from Parisian avant-garde works to the African masterpieces that inspired them. Later, his collection merged with the treasures of his son-in-law, renowned Swiss collector Jean Paul Barbier, creating a museum that now encompasses 7,000 significant works. These include pieces from Africa, Indonesia, Oceania, tribal Asia, and the earliest Mediterranean cultures — making it one of the largest such collections in private hands. Founded in 1977, the museum is located in Geneva’s Old Town in a historic 16th-century building, where it hosts two thematic exhibitions annually, showcasing its vast collection alongside works by invited artists and loans from other institutions.
