A municipal museum in the 1937 Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo was built for the 1937 International Exhibition by the architects Dondel, Aubert, Viard and Dastugue. The building consists of two symmetrical wings linked by a colonnaded peristyle, with a large pool and steps leading down towards the Seine. The west wing now houses the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art centre; the east wing belongs to the City of Paris and has been home to the Musée d'Art Moderne since 1961.
This distinction clears up a common confusion. The Palais de Tokyo (west wing) has no collection: it shows paid exhibitions of contemporary work in raw, unfinished spaces. The MAM (east wing) owns nearly 15,000 works, from Fauvism to the present day, and permanently displays more than 370 pieces with free entry. Nor should it be confused with the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which left the Palais de Tokyo for the Centre Pompidou in 1977 and whose building is closed for works until 2030.
The museum was renovated in 2019: the reception, circulation and signage were redesigned, and the entrance is via the grand staircase on avenue du Président-Wilson. The cloakroom is free and lifts serve every level.
What to see in the permanent collection
Raoul Dufy's La Fée Électricité
This is the museum's most spectacular piece and one of the largest paintings in the world: 250 panels, about 10 m high by 60 m long, or nearly 600 m². Dufy painted it in 1937 for the Electricity Pavilion of the International Exhibition. The mural tells the story of electricity, from the Greek philosophers to the power stations of the 20th century, featuring more than a hundred scientists and inventors. It fills a curved room devoted entirely to it. Take the time to walk along it in both directions: the details reveal themselves up close, the composition from a distance.
Matisse's La Danse
The Matisse room presents two of the three versions of La Danse, commissioned in 1930 by the American collector Albert Barnes. You can see the Unfinished Dance, a first version the artist judged too decorative, rediscovered in his Nice studio in 1990, and the Paris Dance (1931-1933), the culmination of the project. The two monumental compositions, made of pink, grey and blue figures, face each other. The final version is at the Barnes Foundation, near Philadelphia.
Fauves, Cubists and the School of Paris
Dr Maurice Girardin's bequest in 1953, more than 500 works, shaped the museum's identity. It includes Fauvist canvases by Derain, Vlaminck and Van Dongen, Cubist works by Braque, Gleizes and Metzinger, then Robert and Sonia Delaunay, including La Ville de Paris, an immense canvas from 1912. The following rooms bring together Bonnard, Picasso, Modigliani, Chagall, Soutine and Utrillo. The post-war period is represented by Jean Fautrier's Hostages, Jean Dubuffet's textured works, Nicolas de Staël, Yves Klein and Giacometti. The hang changes regularly, but these names remain on display.
Contemporary art and the ARC
The ARC department (Animation, Recherche, Confrontation), created in 1967, gave the museum its reputation for openness to living artists. The contemporary rooms show Christian Boltanski, Daniel Buren, Annette Messager and many German artists who entered the collection through a major donation in 2012. It is also within the collections that the museum hosts the finalists of the Prix Marcel Duchamp every autumn, in partnership with the Centre Pompidou.
Finally, Art Deco enthusiasts will spot the lacquerwork of Jean Dunand and the large decorative panels of Gaston Suisse, contemporaries of the building.
Temporary exhibitions: paid, and often remarkable
The MAM organises two to four major exhibitions a year, with landmark retrospectives: Basquiat in 2010, and Nicolas de Staël in 2023-2024, the museum's attendance record with more than 400,000 visitors. This autumn 2026, the museum devotes its first French exhibition to the American painter Kerry James Marshall (until 24 January 2027, 70 works), alongside an exhibition of the sculptor Simone Fattal, and presents the Prix Marcel Duchamp finalists from 2 October 2026.
Prices noted in September 2026: €17 full price and €15 reduced for the Kerry James Marshall exhibition, free for under-18s. Prices vary by exhibition, generally between €10 and €17. Booking a time slot online is advisable at weekends and in the first weeks. On Thursdays, the exhibitions stay open until 9:30pm: this is the quietest slot, whereas the collections close at 6pm.
The terrace, the restaurant and the view of the Eiffel Tower
The forecourt between the two wings of the Palais de Tokyo, with its columns, its pool and its Bourdelle sculptures, is one of the least crowded viewpoints on the Eiffel Tower. The MAM side has a large terrace facing the Seine, accessible without a ticket, where several restaurants have come and gone. In 2026, the venue is called Corail: Mediterranean cuisine, a terrace open every day until late in the warmer months, and service during museum hours in winter. Prices are those of a smart terrace in the 16th; for a simple coffee, plan a break further along rue de Longchamp or avenue Marceau instead.
The terrace is ideal in the late afternoon: the sun sets behind the Eiffel Tower.
The 2010 theft, in brief
On the night of 19 to 20 May 2010, a lone burglar stole five paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and Léger, valued at nearly €100 million, cutting them out of their frames. The thief was convicted in 2017, but the canvases have never been recovered. The affair led to a complete overhaul of the museum's security. Nothing of it is visible in the galleries today.
Combining the visit with the neighbourhood
The MAM sits at the heart of a museum district where you can spend a whole day on foot:
- Palais de Tokyo, west wing of the same building: contemporary art, paid exhibitions, open in the evening, closed on Tuesdays. Closure for works planned from November 2027.
- Musée Yves Saint Laurent, 5 avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris: the couturier's studio and a selection of his creations, five minutes away.
- Musée Guimet, place d'Iéna: Asian arts, three minutes away via avenue du Président-Wilson.
- Musée du quai Branly: cross the Pont de l'Alma or the Pont d'Iéna, ten minutes on foot.
- Trocadéro and its museums (Architecture, Navy, Mankind): ten minutes' walk up the avenue.
- The Eiffel Tower is a quarter of an hour's walk away via the Pont d'Iéna.
A typical day: Guimet or Yves Saint Laurent in the morning, lunch on the forecourt, the MAM collection in the early afternoon, then an exhibition or the terrace. On rainy days, the MAM and the Palais de Tokyo can be combined without leaving the building: see our ideas for Paris on a rainy day.
Practical information
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Address | 11 avenue du Président-Wilson, 75116 Paris |
| Opening hours | Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm, ticket desks close at 5:15pm; late opening on Thursdays until 9:30pm for temporary exhibitions only |
| Closed | Monday, 1 January, 1 May, 25 December; closes at 5pm on 24 and 31 December |
| Permanent collection | Free for everyone, no booking (suggested donation of €5) |
| Temporary exhibitions | €10–17 full price, €8–15 reduced; free for under-18s (prices noted in September 2026) |
| Métro | Line 9, Iéna or Alma-Marceau stations, 3 minutes away |
| RER | Line C, Pont de l'Alma, 8 minutes' walk |
| Bus | 32, 42, 63, 72, 80, 82, 92 |
| Vélib' | Stations on rue de Longchamp, avenue Marceau and place de la Reine-Astrid |
| Suggested time | 1h30 for the collections, 1 hour more per exhibition |
| Accessibility | Ramp to the right of the entrance, lifts, wheelchairs available on request |
The Paris Museum Pass is of no use here: the collection is free and the museum's exhibitions are not included. Our review of the Paris Museum Pass details the sites actually covered. The first Sunday of the month brings nothing more than any other day, since entry is already free; however, the museum takes part every year in the European Night of Museums, in May.
Going further
The MAM is the perfect example of a major Paris museum you can enjoy without spending a cent. Find its neighbours in our guide to the free museums of Paris, and if you plan to visit several paid sites during the week, our comparison of Paris passes will help you decide.
