In 2026, the Museum received a donation of 289 objects from a private collector, Krzysztof Findziński.

A key turning point in the development of his Asian collection was a trip to Vietnam and China in 1962. It was from this trip that the first objects—which became the nucleus of the collection—originated, including a saber and a sword, an openwork ivory ball and dice, a portable altar, and chopsticks and a knife. The collection has grown over the decades and continues to expand to this day.

Nine selected objects are on display in the central section of the exhibition. Each is accompanied by the collector’s account of its history. These are supplemented by curatorial commentaries that shed light on the cultural context and the functions of the objects in their places of origin.

It is a space where craftsmanship meets biography, and objects become a tangible record of the collector’s life journey. They evoke memories, stir a longing for distant places, and spark the imagination. They are tangible traces of encounters with other cultures, but also starting points for creating one’s own stories.

What about you? Do you collect anything?

Exhibition development team:

Curator: dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata

Curatorial collaboration: Krzysztof Findziński

Project coordinator: Zofia Modzelewska

Set design: dra hab. Anna Skołożyńska-Cieciera ASC STUDIO

Object conservators: Agnieszka Kalbarczyk, Ewa Soszko-Dziwisińska, Magdalena Żero, dr Jacek Tomaszewski

Consultants: dra Barbara Banasik, dra Magdalena Ginter-Frołow, Joanna Karmasz, Karolina Krzywicka, dr Krzysztof Morawski, Izabella Wichniarz, dra Elisabetta Cola

Educational and interactive elements: Zuzanna Jakóbowska

Accessibility coordination: Jagoda Cerkiewnik

Preparation of accessibility materials: Elżbieta Kucharska, Dominika Lewicka-Klucznik, Emilka Szuchniewicz, dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata, Pola Zygmunt

Comic and archival materials digitisation: Syaiful Bahri

Catalogue graphic design and typesetting: Maria Bukowska, Studio Temperówka

Promotional materials design: dra hab. Anna Skołożyńska-Cieciera ASC STUDIO

Copyediting: Anna Kaniewska

English translations: Tomasz Zymer

Object photographs: Łukasz Brodowicz

Promotion and communication: Adam Błonowski

Video and sound editing: dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata, Łukasz Brodowicz

Set production and installation: Tomasz Marzec – Kontra Pracownia Plastyczna oraz zespół MAiP | and the Asia and Pacific Museum team – Marek Czeremuszkin,

Maciej Gacyk, Rafał Gorczyca, Bogusława Milczarczyk, Paweł Prange, Jakub Racki, Krzysztof Ruść

Educational panel production: D-POS

The animations were created by students of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology under the supervision of Anna Eichler DFA: Natalia Ciupka, Illia Kryzhovskyi, Anastasiia Pupyrina, Jo Swiezawska, Polina Tertyshna, Viet Tong, Vasilisa Yeliseyeva

Audioguide recording: Klara Ilnata, dra Maria Szymańska-Ilnata

Muzeum team:

dr Józef Zalewski – Dyrektor

Halina Boroń, Antonina Dukowicz, Beata Gutowska, Rafał Kornacki, Anna Kowalewska, Joanna Kuc, Marta Kurek, Julia Lach, Aleksandra Lipińska, Tomasz Madej, Marzena Mazek, Paulina Niemirska, Gabriela Ogrodnik, Maria Ostrowska, Karolina Pantak, Dorota Pasek, Beata Paszkiewicz, Paulina Pikulska, Radosław Rasiński, Natalia Sańko, Krzysztof Socik, Anna Soczewka, Ewa Soszko-Dziwisińska, Patryk Strojny, Łukasz Szmaja, Maja Zacheja, Małgorzata Zakrzewska, Zofia Zyblewska.

The music used in the exhibition, composed by Arcangelo Corelli, was performed by the orchestra The English Concert under the direction of Trevor Pinnock.

The audio description recordings were made as part of the scholarship „Improvement of Skills in the Comprehensive Production of Audio Description Recordings for Museum Objects”. The scholarship was funded by the European Union under NextGenerationEU.

Opening of the temporary exhibition, June 25, 2026, Museum of Asia and the Pacific in Warsaw

Events Accompanying the Temporary Exhibition “The Krzysztof Findziński Collection: A Cabinet of Memories—Asia”