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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Seton-Porter hotel, located at 16 rue de la Faisanderie in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, is a private hotel built during the first quarter of the 20th century. Since 1951, it has hosted the Counterfeit Museum, founded by the Union of Manufacturers (Unifab). This unique private museum aims to raise public awareness of the economic and legal issues of counterfeiting by presenting authentic products and their copies. The building, whose facades, roofs, wrought iron stairway and large reception hall are protected, was listed as historical monuments on 3 August 1976.

The museum exhibits a wide variety of counterfeit objects, ranging from Rodin's bronzes to contemporary products such as software or automotive parts, to Gallo-Roman d'amphores stoppers, considered the oldest examples of counterfeiting. The collections come mainly from customs seizures, the law prohibiting the purchase of counterfeits, even for museums. The hotel also served as a setting for cultural works, such as the opening scene of La Grande Vadrouille (1966) or episodes of the series Le Bureau des Légendes.

In addition to its permanent collections, the museum organizes temporary exhibitions, such as Authen'Tic Tac in 2018, dedicated to watchmaking and its counterfeiting, or a retrospective planned in 2025 to celebrate the 150 years of anti-counterfeiting campaign led by Unifab. The hotel, owned by a private company, remains open to the public from Monday to Friday, with schedules adapted to individual visitors and groups by reservation. Its architecture, marked by the influence of the masterpiece Henry, makes it a remarkable testimony of the Parisian heritage of the early twentieth century.

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