Musée des Arts Décoratifs MAD

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD) is a museum in Paris dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of the decorative arts, located in the Pavillon de Marsan, the northwestern wing of the Palais du Louvre. It is one of three museums operated by the non-profit arts association MAD, founded in 1882, and its collection was formally established in 1905 by members of the Union des Arts Décoratifs. With approximately one million objects in its holdings, it is the largest museum of decorative arts in continental Europe — a peer to London's Victoria and Albert Museum and an institution that has long served as the definitive repository of French taste and craft. It is the only museum able to pay tribute to all the great names that have forged the history of French taste, from Boulle, Sèvres, Aubusson, Christofle, and Lalique to Mallet-Stevens, Le Corbusier, Perriand, and Starck. Spread over seven floors with a selection of around 6,000 objects on view, the permanent collection takes visitors on a tour through eight centuries of creativity, the art of living, style, and the history of taste. Its chronological itinerary guides visitors through all the major styles and movements, from Gothic to Louis XVI, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and modern design. Highlights include period rooms that reconstruct interiors across French history, among them a late 15th-century bedroom and the celebrated Art Deco marble bathroom created for fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin. The museum also boasts exceptional fashion and textile collections among the finest in the world, as well as a vast collection of advertising posters, films, and objects ranging from Toulouse-Lautrec to Jean-Paul Goude. Beyond its permanent galleries, the wealth of these collections enables MAD to run a programme of ten to fifteen thematic and monographic exhibitions each year, covering every historic and contemporary aspect of the decorative arts.