Museum of Far Eastern Art

About this audio guide

This guide to the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva centers on Alfred Baur, a Swiss fertiliser magnate who began collecting Chinese and Japanese art almost by accident after returning from Ceylon in 1906, buying largely on instinct for two decades. It follows what changed in 1924, when he met the Kyoto dealer Tomita Kumasaku, who spent the next thirty years choosing what Baur could buy and, just as often, refusing him. Baur called him a man of sure and refined taste, and trusted that taste over his own.