Propose objects, works or documents for the Museum’s collections
The Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration is constantly adding to its collections, in all three areas: History, Contemporary Art and Society. You too can help enrich the Museum’s collections and, beyond that, our shared heritage, by proposing works, objects and/or documents regarding migrations in France. For the Society area, the Museum also collects combinations of testimonials and objects relating to life journeys. Feel free to explore the online collections to get an idea of the diversity of the collections.
Each proposal is carefully examined by the Museum’s scientific teams. The establishment pays attention to the scientific and heritage value of proposed items. The state of conservation of the objects, along with their compatibility with the Museum’s collections, are also taken into account.
The Museum’s in-house scientific bodies give an opinion on each proposition. Those found to be in line with the framework of the heritage collections are submitted to the acquisitions committee at the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, which meets once or twice a year.
At the end of this procedure, the object will definitively enter the national public collections: it thus becomes inalienable, unseizable and imprescriptible.
Several months may go by between a donation proposal and the selected object(s) entering into the collection. During this time, the museum team works closely with the owner.
Who to contact?
Please email your proposal (description of the object, photos and condition) to : conservation-mnhi@palais-portedoree.fr
or by mail :
Département des collections du Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration
Établissement public du Palais de la Porte Dorée
293 avenue Daumesnil 75012 PARIS
Please do not send objects or original documents directly, we will not be able to accept them.
What happens to the Museum’s heritage collections?
Once it is part of the Museum’s collections, each piece undergoes scientific and material processing. It is assigned a unique inventory number, is integrated into the collection database, photographed, marked and conditioned to ensure optimal conservation in the reserve store. It is uploaded to the Museum’s website and the Ministry of Culture’s database. It thus becomes accessible to researchers and managers of cultural projects, both in-house and outside the museum, to be used in research projects, publications, exhibitions, mediation, events…