What is a museum in France?

  • Museums, exhibition venues
  • - France as a whole -
  • All audiences

Museums with the name «Musée de France» are distributed in all regions and receive priority support from the State. The «museums of France» have several missions and must meet certain criteria. The Department has scientific and technical control over museum collections management. They advise them in their architectural and museum projects as part of the Heritage Code, which gives meaning to the name «Musée de France».

What is the name «Musée de France»?

This designation reflects the recognition of the institution by the Ministry of Culture. It signals to visitors the interest of the museum and its collections. This concerns just over 1,200 institutions in France, each of which offers a building, collections accessible to the public, a team of professionals and a guarantee of quality. In all regions, from large cities to urban areas, from overseas to abroad, these institutions are spread over the entire national territory.

A collection unique in the world

The museums of France present a collection of collections unique in the world. Because of their extreme variety, these collections can interest all audiences. This variety is both chronological (from the first artistic gestures of the dawn of humanity to the prototype of the Concorde, via the Mona Lisa) and geographical (from ancient Egypt to pre-Columbian America, via the Far East, India, the Pacific or Alaska).

The collections bear witness to national history (Prise de la Bastille, Sacre de Napoléon, Résistance, etc.) or international history (American War of Independence, explorations, etc.), as to everyday life (school, medicine, religion, clothing, environment, etc.)as well as many trades (crafts, boating, agriculture, mining, industry, etc.). Not forgetting musicians, writers, fashion designers, politicians and inventors, some very famous (Louis Braille, inventor of a writing system for the blind, etc.), others unknown while their inventions have changed our lives (Barthélémy Thimonnier, inventor of the sewing machine…). Products of nature (minerals, etc.) as well as human activity, the most precious objects (silverware) are close to others, very simple, or sometimes of an unexpected technique (feather objects, etc.).

Why a museum act?

This diversity finds its coherence through the law of 4 January 2002, which lays down the first legal definition of the museum by specifying its role and its position in relation to the expectations of society. It not only prescribes the heritage role of museums (preserving, studying, enriching collections) but also affirms their missions of education and dissemination of knowledge. It harmonises the status of state-recognised museums, whether they are public or private. It improves the protection of the collections, affirming their inalienable character, while respecting the principle of public property ownership. It reserves the control of the State to the only museums that have applied for and obtained the name «Musée de France» and highlights the advisory mission that falls to the State services. 

Did you know—that?

5% of museums in France belong to the State, 13% to private non-profit-making law and about 82% to local authorities.

En savoir plus sur l'appellation "Musée de France"

The collection in the heart of the museum

A «museum of France», within the meaning of the law of 4 January 2002, integrated into the Heritage Code, is above all a “a permanent collection of property whose preservation and presentation are of public interest and organized for the purpose of public knowledge, education and enjoyment”.

Four permanent missions

The “museums of France” have four major permanent missions:

  • preserve, restore, study and enrich their collections;
  • make them accessible to the wider public;
  • design and implement education and dissemination actions aimed at ensuring equal access to culture for all;
  • contribute to the advancement of knowledge and research.

Four Requirements Criteria

To be approved, a museum must meet four criteria:

  •      be directed by scientific staff from the territorial or national cultural sector (curator or conservation attaché);
  •      have an educational service in its own or in network with other museums;
  •      maintain an inventory of its collections;
  •      Draft a Scientific and Cultural Project (CSP) that sets out its main orientations.

The list of 1,216 museums in France (16/11/2022)

The official list of institutions with the designation "Musée de France" is updated at least once a year, according to the opinions of the High Council of Museums of France, on the attribution, change or withdrawal of the name "Musée de France".

View and/or use the list

The official list is proposed below in three formats: simplified consultation, geographically sorted spreadsheet and open and reusable dataset.

Simplified consultation

Download in pdf format

Geographically sorted spreadsheet

Download the spreadsheet (Use Free Office Calc; choose the semicolon separator when opening the file)

Open and reusable dataset on departmental platform

View the reusable dataset on data.culture.gouv.fr

 

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