Antiquity department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon

The Antiquity department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon invites the visitors to a journey through time and space, from Pharaonic Egypt to the Roman empire. Egyptian antiquities mostly attract the museum’s audience. In numerous galleries, the great themes of Ancient Egypt are presented to the public: funerary artefacts, Egyptian temple, divinities, hieroglyphs and everyday life. Ancient Egypt has been present for a long time in Lyon, at the Museum of Fine Arts too. Egyptian antiquities enter the collections at the beginning of the 19th century and prestigious visitors, such as Jean-François Champollion, the genius discoverer of hieroglyphs, show their interest. Along the decades, the collection is enriched. It nowadays offers a glimpse into Egyptian civilisation, from the Pharaonic period to the early Christian times. The Near and Middle East gallery depicts the great civilisations and lives of those who lived along the Mediterranean Sea and spans over three millennia.
The Near and Middle East gallery presents various collections, illustrating different periods of this territory’s history, where successive civilisations existed such as Mesopotamia, Iran, Persia, Syria and Cyprus. Sculptures, vases, bronze and glass artefacts evoke a familiar Greek and Roman Antiquity. Antique Greece is represented through one of its greatest productions,
the Greek vases. An absolute must see is the Kore, unique example of Greek sculpture, one of the Antiquity gallery’s major pieces. You are also most welcome to discover antiquities from southern Italy, Etruria and the Roman Empire.