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Cultural Programme
Museums
A long-standing sponsor of museums, the BNP Paribas Foundation aims to protect and widen knowledge of their wealth. Accordingly, the Foundation supports the publication of albums on permanent museum collections and the restoration of their masterpieces.
Museum books
The art books in the collection Museums and Monuments of France, launched in 1987, enable museums to increase public awareness, both in France and abroad, of their cultural heritage. The extensively illustrated works, written by the museum conservators themselves, portray the history of the museums, their collections and masterpieces.
Classic fine arts museums, major institutions, specialized museums... the collection endeavors to encompass a wide selection of these repositories of culture.
All the albums are published in French and English, and sometimes in a third language.
The initiative has prompted new publications on museums in other countries, Germany, Portugal, Canada, the United States and Switzerland with support from BNP Paribas Switzerland.
BNP Paribas for Art
The aim of this initiative, launched in 1994 in close collaboration with the Department of French Museums and under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, is the restoration of art works housed in our museums, the aim being to preserve, restore, study and increase public awareness of this cultural heritage.
Since it was launched, the program has enabled around 60 works housed in some 40 French museums, including paintings by Natoire, Chaissac, Champaigne, Deruet, Pérugin, Rubens, Goya and Picasso to be restored... The Foundation has also been a partner in exceptional restorations at the Château de Versailles: the Feast in the House of Simon by Veronese, the ceiling of the Hercules Salon by François Lemoyne and the Mercury ceiling painted by Michel II Corneille. In Avignon, it sponsored the renovation of the Chapel of St. Martial in the Papal Palace.
There are similar programs in Egypt, Australia and Switzerland, with support from the BNP Paribas Switzerland Foundation.
These treasures are rarely on display due to the deterioration suffered over the years. Today, thanks to the combined efforts of restoration specialists and curators, they are once again accessible to visitors.
Download the list of the completed and scheduled restorations
