In 1994, Jacques Chirac commissioned art collector and dealer Jacques Kerchache to curate an exhibition on the art of the Tainos, a people of the Greater Antilles who were overrun by the Spanish conquest. Presented at the Petit Palais, this event dedicated to a little-known art was a resounding success, initiating a change in the general public’s view of non-Western art.

The Tainos and Kalinagos are two inseparable indigenous societies that inhabited the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Despite their virtual disappearance in the 16th century - decimated by disease and forced labour within a decade - many of today’s Caribbean consider themselves to be their descendants.