Durham University Oriental Museum 3.68

The Oriental Museum, formerly the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, is a museum of the University of Durham in England. The museum has a collection of more than 23,500 Chinese, Egyptian, Korean, Japanese and other far east and Asian artefacts. The museum was founded due to the need to house an increasing collection of Oriental artefacts used by the School of Oriental Studies, that were previously housed around the University. The Museum's Chinese and Egyptian collections are 'designated' by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) as being of "national and international importance".HistoryFounded in 1960 to support the University's teaching and research in the Oriental School the collections of the Museum have largely grown through donations and purchases to support cultural studies alongside the teaching of languages. The Museum's initial collection arose from the sale of the antiquities of Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland from Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The collection arrived in late 1950 being initially housed in two rooms in Hatfield College. After a fire broke out in 1956 one of the rooms was returned to the college and much of the collection was placed in storage.