 May 29 - Aug 31 2025

 Ljubljana

Items from the largest collection of Chinese artefacts in Slovenia will be on display at the Ethnographic Museum at an exhibition titled Asia in the Heart of Ljubljana: The Life of the Skušek Collection.

The collection was compiled by navy officer Ivan Skušek Jr (1877-1947) during his stay in Beijing between 1914 and 1920. Featuring about 500 items, the exhibition was bequeathed to the museum 1963 by his Japanese wife Tsuneko Kondō Kawase.

The collection has been conserved since 1963 and resorted, including with the help of Chinese experts, and some of the items are being presented to the public for the first time.

This includes a rare model of a wooden Chinese house and decorative screens of an aristocrat's home from the 19th century, which was restored in 2023 by experts from the Palace Museum in Beijing.

A number of other outstanding objects are on show, such as a large carved stand with a mirror, a collection of Buddhist statuettes and embroidered court garments, as well as objects such as an opium set, pigeon whistles and musical instruments.

The exhibition sheds light on the extraordinary story of the collection and the Skušek family, reconstructing their life, crammed amid heaps of objects in several apartments, as well as Skušek's attempts to create an independent Asian museum.

For more details, click here.