Non-European Cultures

The specialised, inconsistent, but exceptionally interesting collection was founded in 1963–1964 in the framework of re-organisation of holdings. It is a closed part created exclusively from the so-called old BCM collections, which is no longer expanded. Thanks to Egyptologic finds, its time span is very broad – it dates back from the 3rd millenium BC to the 1st quarter of the 20th century, however, most of the items were created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection is valuable due to its overall composition and direct relation to Bratislava townspeople who donated the items to the BCM.

What does the collection document?

• Non-European production: some of the items document non-European objects of an ethnographic and art-and-crafts nature.

• Everyday life and rituals of exotic cultures: the collection contains ritual objects, weapons, items of everyday use and souvenirs.

• African realia: it contains meticulously crafted oriental artefacts, but also simple decorations and clothing components of idigenuous people of Central and South Africa.

Valuable items with supra-regional significance:

• Several objects are of supra-regional significance due to the fact that they do not occur to such an extent in other museums in Slovakia.