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Salvaged from a Shipwreck: The Vienna World’s Fair and Artistic Exchange between Japan and Europe

  • Image of "Dish with a Woman, Bayern, Germany, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)"

    Dish with a Woman, Bayern, Germany, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

    Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 14
    March 21, 2023 (Tue) - May 14, 2023 (Sun)

    This exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Vienna World’ s Fair in 1873. The fair was Japan’s first real opportunity to display its art and culture on a world stage. It was also an opportunity for Japan to study and acquire works of art, industrial samples, and documents in Europe.
    But after the fair, a steamship carrying these resources, Le Nil, sank on the way from Vienna to Japan. This exhibition features some of the objects salvaged from Le Nil as well as related materials about the Vienna Wold’s Fair. Objects gifted to the Tokyo National Museum from overseas after the accident also shed light on the early days of the Museum’s international exchanges.

    List of Exhibits

Major works in this exhibition

* Works listed below are in the TNM Collection unless otherwise indicated.

Dish with a Woman, Bayern, Germany, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

Birdcage, Nagasaki, (Important Cultural Property, Edo period, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

Birdcage, Nagasaki, Edo period, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

Square Dish with Grapes, Stoneware with underglaze iron oxide, By Ogata Kenzan, Edo period, 18th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

Tile with Flowers and Insects, By Minton & Co., United Kingdom, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

Tile with a Heron, By Minton & Co., United Kingdom, 19th century (Gift of the Bureau for the Vienna World Exposition)

Exhibitions