Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature) is a private museum of hunting and nature located at 62, rue des Archives, 3rd arrondissement of Paris, France. It is open daily except Mondays and holidays, and an admission fee is charged. The nearest Paris Métro station is Rambuteau on Line 11.

Exhibits celebrate the relationships between humans and the natural environment through the traditions and practices of hunting. The museum has been characterized by the Smithsonian magazine as “one of the most rewarding and inventive in Paris," and is described in tourist guidebooks and other media as quirky, astonishing, strange and eclectic.

The museum was founded in 1964 by wealthy French industrialist rugmaker François Sommer (1904-1973) and his wife Jacqueline, who were avid hunters and conservationists. It is operated by the Fondation de la Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature, which the couple also founded. The museum is housed within the Hôtel de Guénégaud (1651-1655), the only private mansion designed by architect François Mansart that still exists. Since 2002, it is also housed in the Hôtel de Mongelas (1703), as well. It opened in 1967 and was thoroughly renovated in 2007.

The museum, housed in the limestone Hôtel de Guénégaud under a 99-year lease, is made up of multiple rooms paneled in wood and outfitted with bronze decorative fixtures designed by Brazilian sculptor Saint Clair Cemin, and made to look like vines, antlers and tree branches. The ceiling of one room has been covered in owl feathers in a work called The Night of Diana by contemporary Belgian artist Jan Fabre, previously known for decorating the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Brussels with more than a million and a half beetle wing cases. The museum's rooms have names such as Room of the Boar, Salon of the Dogs and Cabinet of the Wolf.

The museum's chief curator is Claude d'Anthenaise.

The collection is partly made up of objects and works that were gathered personally by François and Jacqueline Sommer: their collection totalled nearly three thousand hunting-related objects, including nearly five hundred engravings.

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Wikipedia