Tucked beside the Luxembourg Garden in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, the Musée du Luxembourg is small enough to fit into a wider Left Bank walk yet carries an unusually long institutional history. It is not the Luxembourg Palace and it is not a permanent encyclopedic collection: today, the museum presents temporary exhibitions, closing between shows. That distinction matters when planning a visit. In autumn 2026, its rooms are devoted to Andy Warhol’s drawings, offering a different entry point into an artist often associated first with screen prints and celebrity portraits.
The museum’s story begins in 1750, when a gallery in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace opened paintings from the royal collection to the public. The Senate’s historical account describes it as the first French museum of painting open to the public and one of the earliest in Europe. Its early displays included major works from the royal holdings; the institution was part of a broader shift that made art once reserved for court life available to visitors.
