10 Best Museums and Art Galleries in Marseille

The MuCEM (Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée) is a national museum that focuses on European and Mediterranean civilisations. The museum is located on a former port terminal on the entrance to the harbour. The vast collection is divided between a modern building designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti and an old, renovated building with views of the Old Port and Notre-Dame de la Garde.

The museum holds 250,000 objects, 350,000 photographs, 150,000 books, 100,000 postcards, and 80,000 sound archives that chronicle the history and culture of the Mediterranean and Europe. You’ll find a wide range of unique exhibits, including Neolithic artefacts, illustrations of animals, and memorabilia from protests.

The Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne features incredible archaeological artefacts of Egyptian and classical antiquities. The museum is located on the 1st floor of La Vieille Charité in Marseille’s 2nd arrondissement.

Most of the collection features Egyptian antiquities, such as statues and sarcophagi. The final room of the collection is decorated as a traditional burial chamber. Other antiquities include vases with period art, bone pins, antique makeup palettes, arrowheads, and busts of important figures. You’ll also find unique artefacts like a scribe’s palette, weaponry, amulets with the effigies of gods, fertility dolls, and preserved furniture.

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille is a fascinating art museum with a vast collection of paintings, sculptures, and illustrations. Located within the city of Marseille at 9 Rue Edouard Stephan, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille focuses on works that span from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Some of the museum’s most notable artists represented include Pierre Paul Puget, Charles Le Brun, Charles-Joseph Natoire, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. You’ll also find Spanish paintings by artists like Jusepe de Ribera and Antonio de Pereda. Other prominent artists featured include Peter Paul Rubens, Louis Finson, and David Teniers the Younger.

Le Musée de la Moto is a spectacular motorsports museum that holds a collection of motorbikes spanning from the 19th century to futuristic concept bikes. Located at 18 Traverse Saint-Paul in Marseille, the museum is found within a renovated flour mill and boasts 4 floors of exhibits.

Some of the highlights of the museum include an experimental 4-cylinder MGC with an aviation engine from 1935, an assortment of Grand Prix racing bikes, and military motorcycles from World War II. Other notable exhibits include a Triumph T120 Bonneville, a Magnat Debon, and San Sou Pap.

Musée d'Histoire de Marseille is a local history museum that focuses on the history of Marseille with archaeological finds from around the city. Located on 2 Rue Henri Barbusse in Marseille, the museum holds an extensive collection of archaeological artefacts sourced during the construction of the Centre de la Bourse shopping centre.

Some of the featured artefacts include a hull of a ship from the 2nd century, artefacts from the Great Plague of 1720, medieval potters’ workshops, a 12th-century French manufactory and relics of early Christianity. The museum also has a garden that holds archaeological remains of a necropolis, port buildings and ramparts.

Musée des Docks Romains is a unique museum that showcases one of the few Roman commercial warehouses remaining in the world. Located on Place Vivaux in Marseille, the museum’s main treasures include dolia, a type of ceramic container used for agriculture in Roman times.

The museum also features walls and wells of medieval houses and detailed exhibits on the role of dolia in wine-producing regions. You’ll also see nautical artefacts recovered from over 20 shipwreck excavations in the city’s harbour.

Musée d'Arts Africains, Océaniens, Amérindiens (MAAOA) is a diverse museum dedicated to the arts and culture of Oceania, the Americas, and Africa. Located in Le Panier in Marseille, the museum has an extensive collection of treasures like trophy heads, engraved human skulls, ritual masks, and more.

The museum is divided into the Africa Room, the Mexico Room, and the Oceania-Americas Room. Other unique exhibits include trees of life, Mexican sculptures, woollen paintings, funeral mannequins from Oceania, mask headdresses from Guyana, Dan masks from the Ivory Coast, and Fang statues from Gabon.

Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Marseille is a popular natural history museum with exhibits of animals, minerals, fossils, and botanicals. Located in Palais Longchamp in Marseille, the museum dates back to 1819 and boasts nearly 400,000 specimens.

The museum’s exhibitions are divided into zoological specimens, Provence flora, and fauna, comparative anatomy and prehistory and evolution. Some of the impressive artefacts include a woolly mammoth skull, boa constrictor skeletons, a mosasaur skeleton, a pair of giraffes from 1872, a hydrocephalic man, and a giant preserved gecko.

Musée Grobet-Labadié is a 19th-century mansion museum that showcases what life was like for a bourgeois family during the period. Located on Boulevard Longchamp in Marseille, the museum was a gift to the city from the family and boasts a wide collection of works from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

The collections of the wealthy merchant family are unique in that they’re eclectic and represent different periods and styles. You’ll see authentic period furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries on the main floors as well as stained glass, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. Throughout the mansion, you’ll come across works from the Renaissance and early Middle Ages.

Musée Cantini is a modern art museum that focuses on works from 1900 to 1960. Located on Rue Grignan in Marseille, the museum has been in operation since 1936 as a hub of decorative arts.

The museum boasts one of the largest collections of early modern art in France, including works from Henri Laurens, Max Ernst, Victor Brauner, and Charles Camoin. You can see works from the interwar period, works done in the styles of pointillism and surrealism, and post-World War II works. You’ll also find drawings from prominent artists like Picasso and Brauner.