Would you like to support the museum?
Join the Association of Friends of the Museum and Heritage!
By your membership you participate in the acquisition and restoration of works financed by the association.
For more information, visit the page dedicated to them:
Donate to the museum!
The Loire Museum has the designation "Musée de France" issued by the Ministry of Culture.This means that it is a public institution whose collections belong to the public domain. When a work enters the museum's collections, it also becomes part of the national heritage.A special rule is then imposed on these works: they are said to be inalienable, that is to say that they cannot be given, sold or exchanged. These collections are also imprescriptible: if they are stolen, no limitation period can be invoked.
As soon as the museum makes a purchase or accepts a donation, it undertakes to keep the object without limit in time. It is for this reason that the museum carefully examines any new acquisitions and has a right of reserve even with regard to donations.
What are the steps for a work to enter our collections?
As a first step, the museum's scientific team analyzes the object in order to know if it is of artistic, historical or documentary interest in relation to the institution's acquisition policy.
Then the object is presented to the regional scientific commission of acquisition, a body that carries out the scientific and technical control of the State. The latter issues an opinion – favorable or unfavorable – which conditions the entry of the object into the collections.
Any donation is then validated by an official document drawn up by the City which indicates any conditions or restrictions issued by the donor.
Once these different steps have been completed, the object is registered in the museum's inventory registers , an inventory number is assigned to it and it enters the collections definitively.