MAO - Museo d'Arte Orientale

MAO brings the art of Asia to Turin from a sixteenth-century palace in the old quarter near the cathedral. Nearly 2,300 works from South-East Asia, China, Japan, the Himalayas and the Islamic world are displayed across five galleries in Palazzo Mazzonis, reopened as a museum in December 2008 after a meticulous restoration.

Why it matters

Turin's civic museums cover an astonishing range, and MAO fills the Asian chapter. The museum gathers collections that had accumulated in the city since the nineteenth century — through missionaries, scholars and the former Museum of Antiquities' oriental holdings — and gives them a dedicated, purpose-restored setting. Its five galleries run geographically: Southern and South-East Asia; East Asia with China; East Asia with Japan; Central-Southern Asia and the Himalayan region; and Central-Western Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Mediterranean, the last enriched by over 1,400 pre-Islamic archaeological finds from Seleucia and Coche in Iraq. The building is as much an attraction as the collections: Palazzo Mazzonis, documented since 1587, links a noble past with a museum present, and its glass-roofed courtyard holds Japanese gardens that set the register for everything above.

What to notice

The Japanese gardens beneath the glass roof reflect architect Andrea Bruno's approach of setting new insertions within the historic fabric. The China gallery ranges from Neolithic bronzes and ceramics to later dynastic art. The Han-dynasty "coin tree" is among the museum's emblematic objects. The Japan gallery spans sacred sculpture of the eleventh century to the woodblock prints of the nineteenth — printed pictures made for a wide urban public — alongside armour and a figure of Tamon-ten. The South-East Asian and Himalayan rooms hold Gandharan sculpture and Tibetan religious art, while the Islamic gallery includes a textile illustrating the story of Kosrow and Shirin. Iraqi archaeological finds from Seleucia and Coche enrich the top gallery.

Context and history

Palazzo Mazzonis carries five centuries of urban history before the museum arrives. Attested since 1587 as a residence of aristocratic families including the Solaro della Chiusa and Solaro della Margarita, it was renovated in 1723 for Marquess Francesco Amedeo Ludovico, then sold in 1879 to the industrialist Paolo Mazzonis, whose textile factory worked the building for a century; it was declared a valuable monument in 1910. After the factory closed, the City of Turin bought the palace in 1980, restoring it first for judicial offices — the years when major terrorism trials of the anni di piombo were held here — and then, between 2004 and 2008, transforming it for the museum, which opened in December 2008. The installation was designed by Andrea Bruno, an architect and UNESCO expert on restoration, with the museum's founding director Franco Ricca advising; a 2015 reinstallation added large temporary-exhibition space and the terrace opened to visitors in 2023. MAO is run by the Fondazione Torino Musei together with GAM and Palazzo Madama.