Gyan Museum
The Gyan Museum
A private museum in Jaipur built around one man's collection, and the reason the family's name is known outside the trade.
What it is
A collection, not a showroom
The Gyan Museum was created by Suresh and Arun Dhaddha after their father, Gyan Chand Dhaddha, died in 2004. He had collected since he was sixteen, when his own father gave him two objects; by the end of his life the collection ran to thousands of pieces of Indian and foreign origin, alongside the gems and jewellery that were his trade.
The museum holds around 2,500 works and represents roughly 3,000 years of material culture. A section of it is given over to his own belongings. Nothing in the museum is for sale, and it is not a retail extension of Gem Plaza — the two are separate entities that share a family and a city.
The collection
Nine curatorial categories
- 01Decorative Arts
- 02Jainism
- 03Jewellery
- 04Numismatics
- 05Textiles & Costumes
- 06Arms & Armoury
- 07Accessories
- 08Paintings & Manuscripts
- 09Silverware
The building
Paul Mathieu's interior
The museum is an original Paul Mathieu design, and the building is as much of the visit as the vitrines. The plan is circular, closer to a mantra than a corridor, and the display cases, marble front desk, hand-knotted rug, bronze daybed and Murano glass chandelier were all made for it.
The entrance door has a rock crystal handle. Inside, a monolithic jade Ganesh stands in a high, white, quiet room. A white marble staircase — its proportions borrowed from Rajasthani fort architecture — rises to two curved doors: one to the antiquities, one to the contemporary salon.
Recorded visitors
Who has been through it
The museum's own visitor record includes Prince Albert II of Monaco; Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of Dior; Lucia Silvestri, creative director of Bvlgari; the jewellery historian Usha R. Balakrishnan; and patrons of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Visiting
The museum and the atelier, on one appointment
Most people who come to see the museum also want to see how the work is made. We arrange the two together: the collection in the morning, the Sitapura atelier in the afternoon, or the reverse. Choose the museum and atelier option when you book and we will confirm both.
What is the Gyan Museum?
The Gyan Museum is a private museum in Jaipur holding around 2,500 objects that span roughly 3,000 years, arranged across nine curatorial categories. It was created by the Dhaddha family in memory of Gyan Chand Dhaddha, founder of the jewellery house Gem Plaza, and its interiors were designed by Paul Mathieu.