Research

The Musée de Picardie

Explore the prestigious collections of the Musée de Picardie, a monumental palais des arts in the heart of the city of Amiens.

Musée de Picardie - ADRT80 - A. Carrier

A model museum

The Musée de Picardie has just been fully restored. It was the first purpose-built museum in France with the specific aim of housing works of art. The museum, built in 1867 under Napoleon III, then inspired the builders of other major French museums. The Palais des Arts remains the showcase of an incredible collection which sends visitors on a journey into the history of the Western World, from prehistoric times to the present day.

Listed as a historic monument in 2012, the Amiens museum brings together eclectic collections.

Archaeological collections: from prehistory to Gallo-Roman times, including the ancient Greeks and Egyptians;
Mediaeval works: from small precious artefacts to monumental sculptures;
Fine Art collections: paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 16th to 19th Centuries;
modern and contemporary art: paintings, sculptures, photographs and installations.

A 19th Century monument in a verdant setting

The new layout of the museums’ surroundings contributes to the metamorphosis of the site. With ponds in the main courtyard, a hanging garden on the roof of the Pavilion Maignan, and even a naturalist’s garden with shrubs and bushes from the Picardy region, this monument clothed in green has opened its doors in the city of Amiens.

Layers of semi-perennial plants dotted with bright and exotic colours are also part of the landscaped surroundings of the museum.

Musée de PicardieOTAM - S. Cadet

The main courtyard now boasts 7,500 shrubs and ferns, 8,300 bulbs, and 220 annuals: a contemporary interpretation of the principles of 19th Century landscaping.

2064 M²Ground floor

1802 m²First floor

800 m²Basement

52x57 mMuseum quadrangle

A new scientific and cultural project

This eclectic, redesigned museum tour revolves around three main themes: the human, the territorial and the scientific. The Picard origin of many of the works and objects in the permanent collections is central to the tour (mediaeval works from Amiens cathedral, traditional Picard skills and landscapes, the role played by local artists in the 19th Century...).

The first floor

Completely restored, the first floor has reopened after a ten-year period of closure. Over approximately 2000 m2, in rooms filled with bright colours, the tour unfolds chronologically, from the 15th Century to the present day. Both rich and eclectic, the collection of paintings is in a fitting setting.

Upgraded rooms on the ground floor

The mediaeval collections are displayed in the four ground floor rooms. They combine works of different types: stone and wood sculptures, some in polychrome, gold work as well as alabaster, ivory and stained glass works. The collections presented range from the late 9th Century to the mid-16th Century.

The basement

In use since 1986 the museums’ basement is divided into two sections. The first is devoted to the Mediterranean basin, with the Egyptian and Ancient Greek collections. The second room showcases regional archaeological collections from prehistoric sites in the Somme valley, Gallo-Roman times (the Roman city of Samarobriva - Amiens), and the Merovingian period (Christian stela from Amiens and the surrounding area).