Photo : Asiatica / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Musée Asiatica
The Asiatica museum is a private museum of oriental art in Biarritz, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, on the Rue Guy Petit. Run by a non-profit association, it opened to the public on 5 March 1999. It owes its existence to Michel Postel, who collected works in India over several decades.
Its collections, arranged by region, cover some 4,000 years of history and come from India, Nepal, Tibet and China; according to sources they number more than 2,000 pieces. They include religious sculpture, paintings, ritual objects, antique jewellery, textiles and folk art. Notable groups include prehistoric bronzes, mohra masks from Himachal Pradesh, stelae from Bihar, Chinese Neolithic jades and Tibetan bronzes and ritual objects.
The visit takes about an hour and a half. Audio guides are available in French, English and Spanish, and there is a shop and a tea room.
