From the Persian Empire to the conquests of Alexander the Great, from the expansion of Islam to Chinese explorations, from Portuguese adventures to Dutch navigations, the great maritime discoveries that founded today’s world took place between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. A rich exhibition of more than two hundred works from 50 museums and institutions from Lisbon to Singapore, takes visitors on a journey at the crossroads of trade featuring African gold and Western silver, Venetian glass, Indian cotton, and porcelain and spices from the China seas.

 

The exhibition Ocean Explorers: From Sindbad to Marco Polo was presented from November 2016 to February 2017 at the Arab World Institute (Paris), in a version principally focused on the Arab explorers of the Middle Ages. The exhibition Ocean Explorers: Mediterranean – Indian Ocean, 7th-17th Centuries at the Mucem features the ‘Great Discoveries’ and presents 50 new works, notably from the Biblioteca Estense de Mod ne (Italy), the Caixa Geral de Depósitos (Lisbon), the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de l’Océan Indien (Réunion) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna).