Baumeister also loved the art of the ancient Egyptians. He estimated this art to be - as he put it - direct painting that is built up of elementary forms as elements of the expression. Some wooden Shabits and two bronze Osiris figures appear in his collection.
Willi Baumeister's interest was also drawn to a small mummie casing, whose typical non-perspectival representation particularly enthralled him: the head in profile, the eye frontal, the shoulders frontal, belt and buttocks from the side... ( Baumeister, 1947)
Beginning in 1940, Baumeister collected terracotta statuettes from the Aegean culture, Mykonos, and Boeotia. Ancient Greece is represented in the collection by several of these early archaic small works of art. Baumeister showed great interest in the Cycladic idols of which he acquired plaster casts that he patinated in gradated earth tones. In 1940 Baumeister wrote to Heinz Rasch that for him sculptures from the Greek island art were probably the strongest stimulus to his own actions and work.