Le Musée Napoléon Iii Au Palais De L'industrie : Mai-Octobre 1862 Un Musée Éphémère

Designed to house the Campana collection acquired in 1861, the Napoleon III Museum only existed for a few months - from 1 May to the end of October 1862 - before its collections were dispersed.

Ephemeral and little known, the Napoleon III Museum is nonetheless an emblematic institution of the Second Empire and of the emperor's cultural policy. Through the Campana collection, the museum offered an exceptional panorama of Italian art and craftsmanship from antiquity to the 17th century. It also included collections from archaeological explorations financed by the emperor (in Asia Minor, Macedonia and Phoenicia), as well as casts of Greek statuary and the Trajan column in Rome.

Based on archival documents, this book reconstructs this great ephemeral museum.