Of gold, silver, feathers, mother-of-pearl, pearls or iron, the currency amazes with its diversity. Commercial transactions are materialized in multiple forms, finally, beyond exchange, by expressing rank, prestige and wealth.
These instruments, exhibited or kept secret, are invested with social or sacred symbolics and embrace the most diverse aspects: Kuba velvet from Zaire, Ivory Coast wristbands, textiles from Timor (Southeast Asia), feather rolls from the Santa Cruz Islands (Polynesia), etc.
Some 200 pieces from museums and private collections invite the public to a sensitive journey through the customs and monetary rituals of cultures and civilizations. The course also highlights a series of popular European objects such as the spectacular clairvoyance automatons that celebrate the coin as a rite of passage towards the irrational and the dream.