Post #444644 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Apr 3, 2009 1:42 PM

Sorry, Unga, wrong museum. It is this one: http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/

...which could be called the Louvre of primitive art. The collections of the Mussee d'home, which inspired Picasso to become a painter, were united with those from other Paris institutions to build what is possibly the largest Ethnology museum in Europe. This looks like an interesting exhibit:

http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/programmation/exhibitions/currently/mangareva/index.html

You missed this one:
http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/programmation/exhibitions/last-exhibitions/art-and-divinity-in-polynesia-1760-1860/index.html

Regarding "Tiki" pop culture: I have often wondered why there is NO Tiki bar/Poly pop restaurant tradition in Paris, since the French had a similarly close connection to Tahiti than Americans did to Hawaii. My explanation is that they had too much of that European intellectual "good taste" to allow themselves such folly. :)