Palais de Tokyo

The Palais de Tokyo, originally named the palais des Musées d'art moderne, is a building devoted to modern and contemporary art. It stands at 13, avenue du Président-Wilson in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, a few hundred metres north-east of the palais de Chaillot along the Seine embankments, in an architectural style close to that of the palais de Chaillot. The building's outer shell is entirely clad in marble.

It occupies the site of the Savonnerie manufactory.

Before the war, the building was named 'palais de Tokio', then 'palais de New-York' in the immediate post-war period, and finally 'palais de Tokyo', after the 'quai de Tokio' (now avenue de New-York) along the Seine, on which its south-east façade faces.

The Palais de Tokyo, along with the palais de Chaillot and the palais d'Iéna, is one of the three permanent buildings resulting from the 1937 International Exhibition and was intended, under the 1934 plan, to replace the Musée du Luxembourg. It was initially used to present a retrospective of French art from the Middle Ages onwards, but its true inauguration took place in 1947, when the collections, relocated during the Second World War, returned.

Its original purpose, after the Universal Exhibition, was in fact to house two museums of modern art: one belonging to the City of Paris, the other to the State, described as the 'musée national'. The Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris still occupies the east wing of the building, while the Musée national d'Art moderne, housed in the west wing, saw its collections transferred for the most part to the Centre Pompidou in the 1970s and, for the remainder, to the Musée d'Orsay in the 1980s. The west wing, thus left free, now houses a centre for contemporary art, specifically bearing the name 'Palais de Tokyo'.

A municipal decree of 14 May 1997 gave the name place de Tokyo to a car park in front of the palace entrance, on avenue du Président-Wilson, opposite the palais Galliera, the City of Paris's fashion museum, and between rue Maria-Brignole and rue de Galliera, which enclose the palais Galliera.

The exhibition space is one of the largest for contemporary art on the international scene.

The site is served by the Alma - Marceau and Iéna metro stations.

On 22 December 2025, the complex formed by the Palais de Tokyo and the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris was listed as a historic monument by order of the prefect of the Île-de-France region.