The Royal Museum of Central Africa, commonly known as the Tervuren Museum, was founded in 1897 by King Leopold II of Belgium to promote commercial and public interest in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Tervuren Museum owns the world's best collection of Central African art and is known not only for its encyclopaedic collections but also for the age and the aesthetic brilliance of many of the objects. Most date from 1890 to 1940, when these masks and sculptures were still in use, although the exact date and place of origin of some of the oldest pieces is unknown. Almost all of the pieces in this exhibition were collected before 1945.
This exhibiton was created by the Art Centre Basel by selecting 100 masterworks from the collection of the Tervuren Museum and was praised highly by the international audiences.
