The original museum (that is now the Musee de L’homme) was first built in the late 19th century. When it first opened, it primarily displayed African, Native American and Asian artifacts. In the 1930’s, many paintings were based off of artifacts seen in the museum, and the more modern art movement began in Europe at this time. In the 1930’s the museum displayed a lot of skulls and sculptures that dealt with ethnography and the supposed “differences” between races.