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History of the GrandPalaisRmn

The Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais (GrandPalaisRmn) was founded in 1895 to raise and administer the funds required for the acquisition of works of art by national collections. At its creation, the Rmn was made up of only four bodies: the Louvre, the château de Versailles, the Musée du Luxembourg and the château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Museum of National Antiquities).

Today, the GrandPalaisRmn works with thirty four institutions: 32 museums and 2 exhibition venues. The museums range from the immense, with the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and the château de Versailles, through medium-sized institutions such as the Musée Picasso, Paris, the Musée de la Renaissance at the château d'Ecouen and the Musée Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice to small entities such as the Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris, and the Musée Magnin, Dijon. The exhibition venues are the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais and the Palais de la Porte Dorée. 22 of these 34 institutions are located in Paris or the surrounding area.

In 1991, the RMN became a national public institution operating in industrial and commercial fields (EPIC) under the supervision of the French Ministry of Culture.

The Louvre became a public administrative entity in 1992. The museum and national estate at Versailles were similarly declared to be a public administrative entity in 1995. The Musée d'Orsay and the Musée des Arts asiatiques-Guimet became public administrative entities on 1 January 2004.

In 2011, the GrandPalaisRmn was born from the merger of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Grand Palais, in order to constitute an international cultural operator, benefiting from an emblematic monument and drawing on the expertise and complementarity of the activities both institutions.

The GrandPalaisRmn presents each year about forty very diverse cultural events in Paris, in the region and internationally. The Grand Palais, one of the favorite monuments of the French, is the prestigious showcase in the heart of Paris. Exhibitions, concerts, parades, shows, performances ... the programming, both demanding and popular, is accessible to all audiences in the interest of cultural democratization and is accompanied by a rich offer of mediation.

Beyond the events, the GrandPalaisRmn broadcasts culture through its editorial activities, its network of bookstores art shops and its photographic agency, the first French agency of art images.

Finally, the GrandPalaisRmn contributes to the enrichment of national collections by making acquisitions on behalf of the State.

The missions of the GrandPalaisRmn

1. Acquisition of works of art

Acquiring works of art to expand the national collections is the GrandPalaisRmn's primary mission, for which it was set up in 1895.

It makes purchases - from individuals or art dealers or bids at public auctions - and manages donations and dations.

In 2002, the RMN spent 7 million euros on acquisitions.

2. Visitor reception

The GrandPalaisRmn participates in the development of reception areas as well as in the administration and management of public services (access, ticketing, cloakroom, guided tours, booking, etc.), for the majority of national museums and for the exhibitions that it co-organizes with them. Its board of directors fixes entrance fees as well as exemptions and discounts granted to specific visitor categories.

The GrandPalaisRmn specifies and settles booking procedures for groups (tourists, schools...) and visitors wishing to attend guided tours provided by lecturers from the national museums.

In addition, the GrandPalaisRmn offers a specific booking service for single visitors to all the exhibitions held in the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais that is available between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. This service is aimed at visitors who come from a great distance and wish to avoid queuing.

Since 1990, the GrandPalaisRmn has undertaken regular surveys of visitors attending national museums and exhibitions.

Furthermore, the GrandPalaisRmn is closely associated with the financial management of the musées et monuments Pass. This season ticket enables tourists to visit the 70 museums and monuments in Paris and in the Ile-de-France area at a fixed price calculated for one, three or five days.

3. Organization of temporary exhibitions

Since 1930, the GrandPalaisRmn has been in charge of the administrative and logistic organization of most temporary exhibitions presented in national museums as well as the larger exhibitions of the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais since they opened to the public in 1966.

The organization of a major international exhibition requires a considerable amount of work that usually covers a period of four or five years.

Exhibitions in national museums are scheduled several years in advance by a special committee which meets regularly at the GrandPalaisRmn's head office.

The GrandPalaisRmn fixes the exhibitions' budget and supervises its implementation. It negotiates and signs co-production agreements with foreign museums when large international exhibitions are displayed successively in two or three countries or, in the case of regional exhibitions, within French territorial communities. The GrandPalaisRmn also administers loan applications as well as the shipping and insurance of works of art. Together with the exhibition commissioners, the GrandPalaisRmn chooses the architect-designer who will be in charge of mounting the exhibition. Once the exhibition is organized, the GrandPalaisRmn carries out the promotional work (press relations, advertising...).

The GrandPalaisRmn is also responsible for finding sponsors and partners who wish to bring financial support to these exhibitions.

In addition, the GrandPalaisRmn co-produces or contributes on request to the organization of exhibitions which are presented by institutions other than national museums, sharing its own experience and know-how with them.

The GrandPalaisRmn therefore works regularly with regional museums, institutions affiliated to the Direction du Patrimoine as well as with the AFAA (Association fran,aise d'Action artistique/Ministry of Foreign Affairs) on a selection of international exhibitions.

The GrandPalaisRmn organizes around 20 exhibitions a year, which differ in size, subject and cost.

4. Cultural distribution and publication

In the field of cultural dissemination, the GrandPalaisRmn aims to reconcile its public service missions with market realities. In this spirit, its commercial activities are guided first and foremost by a commitment to quality-both in terms of the selection and "content" of its products and in terms of their production.

From its very inception, the GrandPalaisRmn has engaged in commercial activities, albeit limited to the sale of products from the Louvre's engraving and casting workshops, which were attached to it upon its creation in 1895.

The role of publisher is enshrined in the original missions of the Réunion des musées nationaux, the predecessor of GrandPalaisRmn. Founded in the 1930s, the publishing house dedicated itself to the publication of exhibition catalogs, guides, and scholarly journals. Over time, its activities have expanded and diversified, making it one of the most important art publishers in France. Combining public service missions with commercial activities, GrandPalaisRmnÉditions continues to promote and disseminate knowledge of the national museum collections. The austere publications of the early days have evolved to make way for an innovative and varied range of art books, capable of reaching ever-wider audiences.


This publishing activity (which has expanded to include audiovisual media and, since 1993, multimedia) has grown significantly in recent years, leading the Grand Palais RMN to acquire the status of a public industrial and commercial institution (EPIC) in order to establish structures better suited to this evolution.