Throughout his career as a “collector”, the Genevan artist Émile Chambon (1905-1993) kept a detailed inventory of the collection of the African objects inherited from his uncle in the French colonial administration and the purchases he made on the Parisian and Swiss art markets. In 1981, the painter chose the MEG to deposit the 1000 or so pieces of African and Oceanian origin in his collection. F. Morin/MEG