Aden-Marseille. D'un port à l'autre

Opening Thursday, November 20, 6:30 p.m.
Come and enjoy a free preview of the exhibition.
Musical performances by Shadi Fathi, an international Iranian artist and virtuoso of traditional Persian and Kurdish instruments, will be held in the exhibition rooms.

Unique exhibition dedicated to relations between Marseille and Aden

Long-standing partners, the City of Marseille and the Établissement public du musée du Louvre are taking their cooperation to a new level by co-organizing an original exhibition dedicated to the relationship between Marseille and Aden, two port cities with intertwined destinies.

Presented at the Centre de la Vieille Charité from November 21, 2025 to March 29, 2026, this exhibition is based on an ambitious scientific partnership and an exceptional showcasing of the archaeological collections held in Marseille and the Louvre.

This richly documented tour will be based on some twenty Yemeni works, donated to the City of Marseille at the turn of the XXᵉ century by the Compagnie des messageries maritimes and the Riès family, merchants specializing in the coffee trade in Aden. These pieces will interact with artifacts and archives on loan from the Musée du Louvre, as well as other prestigious international institutions, including the British Museum (London), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin), the Musée Arthur Rimbaud in Charleville-Mézières and several private collections.

The presence of Marseillais in Aden from the 1870s - encouraged by the opening of the Suez Canal - will be particularly explored, as will that of the Yemenis who, over time, settled in Marseilles. Testimonials and creations by Yemeni artists living in Marseilles today will extend this story to the present, highlighting the vitality of the links that continue to exist between the two communities and the richness of Yemen in the pre-Islamic period.

Through this event, the Centre de la Vieille Charité confirms its role as a place of excellence for research, conservation and mediation around the world's heritage.

The exhibition also serves as a reminder of the urgent need to preserve cultural heritage, now seriously threatened by conflict in Yemen, and celebrates the wealth of South Arab civilization, particularly that of the Kingdom of Saba.

The exhibition Aden-Marseille:

Crossed histories between two ports

Part 1 - Yemen and the Sudarabic kingdoms

Part 2 - Europeans in Aden: trade, diplomacy and antiquities

Part 3 - From Yemen to Marseille: a migratory route between Aden, Djibouti and the Mediterranean

Part 4 - Contemporary perspectives: creations between Yemen, Marseille and Europe

General Curator:
Ann Blanchet, Head Curator of Heritage, Musées de Marseille
Juliette Honvault, Researcher at IREMAM, AMU - CNRS
Marianne Cotty, Curator, Department of Oriental Antiquities, Musée du Louvre


Booklet to accompany the visit - FALC
The texts presenting the eight chapters of the exhibition have been transcribed into easy-to-read and easy-to-understand text in a booklet made available to the public.
Available from January 2026
Free, available at ticket offices

► To make sure you can take advantage of the full tour of all our exhibition rooms, we invite you to contact the Museum before your visit.

► All tours and activities around the exhibition are available on the Museums website.