"East is East, West is West, and together they will never come together." These words, spoken by Kipling about a hundred years ago, turned out to be a bad prophecy. Now, when the world is becoming more and more united, the ties between East and West - political, economic, cultural - not only developed and strengthened, but turned out to be the most important, largely determining the overall picture of the development of the modern world. The collapse of colonialism in the countries of Asia and Africa, the birth of independent states that have embarked on the path of independent development are the most important events of our era. Interest in these states is huge, and there is great interest in their culture and art. We admire the masterpieces of the art of the East no less than antiquity and Renaissance, Gothic and classicism. Meanwhile, only some 50-70 years ago, only a few knew about the art of Asia and Africa in Europe. Of course, Europeans traded with the countries of these continents back in the Middle Ages.