Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The museum was founded in 1867 when Stanislas Bonfils (1823-1909) created a private natural history firm in Menton. In 1878, the City of Menton officially founded its first municipal museum by integrating the collections of Bonfils, which became its curator until 1906. The excavations that it leads to the grottos of Grimaldi and the donations received gradually enrich the collections, leading to the construction of a dedicated building, inaugurated in 1909 rue Lorédan Larchey. This place houses the museum, a library and a drawing school.

In the 1950s-1960s, Commander Octobon played a key role in encouraging collectors to bequeath their archaeological pieces at the museum. His own collections, officially donated in 1968 (validated by the Ministry in 1969), complement those of Bonfils to form a complete archaeology exhibition on the ground floor. In 1977, pictorial works were transferred to the new Museum of Fine Arts at the Palais de Carnolès, while an exhibition of popular arts and traditions, led by Jacqueline Martial-Salm, occupied the basement until its dismantling in 2008.

In 1988, after several years of closure, the museum reopens under its current name as a regional prehistory museum, with a permanent exhibition dedicated to regional prehistory, proposed by Henry de Lumley. Since 1990, the collections have been enriched with donations and deposits, including those of the Vallonnet cave in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, one of the oldest prehistoric sites in France. In 2016, a convention with the DRASM allowed the exhibition of underwater archaeology objects from the excavations of the Anao Association, the underwater adventure, as part of the exhibition Treasures of Wrecks.

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