Under the cobblestones of Paris, another museum attracts the curious: a place that does not smell of wax or marble, but of fresh paint and aerosol.
Welcome to the Banksy Museum, a unique space located just steps from the major Parisian museums, where street art enters into dialogue with fine arts.
Here, there are no stiff labels nor religious silence. You hear the sounds of the street, the rubbing of a spray can, the laughter of a visitor discovering a life-sized mural.
Between museum and wasteland: a different idea of art
The place does not resemble a traditional museum.
It is a maze of tagged walls, painted staircases, stenciled portraits, and giant murals inspired by Banksy’s original works.
There are more than a hundred hand-painted mural reproductions by international graffiti artists and contemporary artists.
This contemporary art museum is nothing like a temple of silence: it more closely resembles a living workshop, a permanent exhibition where every wall becomes an ephemeral canvas.
Visitors move freely, like on a guided city tour, through the exhibition spaces where urban sculptures, audiovisual installations, and documentary videos intertwine.
Banksy, the ghost artist
The exhibition does not explain Banksy; it makes you feel him.
We still do not know who he is – a man, a woman, a collective? It does not matter.
This British street artist, born in the shadows, has shaken the international art scene.
His artworks, made with spray cans or stencils, address themes as varied as war, consumption, freedom, and power.
In the museum’s rooms, his universe unfolds on raw walls: the little girl with the red balloon, the anarchist rat, the pacifist soldiers…
Each mural tells a fragment of our time.
Far from the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay, this place reinvents the way of seeing and feeling art, between immediate emotion and social reflection.
An immersive and permanent exhibition
The Banksy Museum — or The World of Banksy — occupies the Espace Lafayette-Drouot, in the 9th arrondissement.
It is not a temporary exhibition but an evolving installation, regularly enriched.
The collections on display are inspired by the walls of London, Berlin, and Bethlehem.
Each reproduction respects the texture of the concrete, the imperfections, the traces of time.
This artisanal precision gives the place a unique strength: you feel like wandering through an open-air gallery, as if the Grand Palais or the Louis Vuitton Foundation had left their walls to graffiti artists.
A guided tour helps to better understand the hidden symbols behind each work:
When the museum goes beyond its walls
Street art is no longer marginal: it has found its place in art history.
The major national museums, from the Centre Pompidou to the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, now dedicate contemporary art exhibitions to these creators from the street.
But Banksy remains unclassifiable.
His work is neither entirely urban nor really institutional.
The Banksy Museum embodies this tension: a museum space that preserves the energy of the pavement, while offering the cultural mediation of a recognized museum.
Guided visits are offered on weekends, with a reduced rate for students and young audiences.
You can also choose a more intuitive self-guided tour to simply lose yourself in this labyrinth of images and words.
A collective and evolving work
Banksy himself refuses commercialization.
His ephemeral works, often erased or vandalized, are not for sale.
The museum acts here as an invisible curator, a place that preserves without freezing.
It is a living memory of graffiti.
Some murals are accompanied by sculptures and sound installations.
You can perceive the closeness to artists like Basquiat or Keith Haring, pioneers of urban painting.
The dialogue between the works reminds us that graffiti, far from being a simple tag, fully belongs to contemporary artistic heritage.
Paris, the graffiti capital
The Parisian museum is part of a broader geography: that of the city’s walls, from the Street Art Avenue along the Ourcq Canal to the monumental murals of the 13th arrondissement.
In Paris, urban art has become a major artistic movement, supported by the Ministry of Culture and the municipal museums.
Every year, numerous exhibitions are organized around graffiti art, often linked with contemporary art centers.
The Banksy Museum, with its colorful murals and wall installations, complements this urban map.
It attracts both art lovers and families or school groups, thanks to a museum program designed for all audiences.
Practical information
📍 Banksy Museum – The World of Banksy
🕘 Open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
🎟️ Free admission for children under 6 years old
🎧 Guided museum tours by reservation
🧒 Children’s workshops during school holidays
The museum also offers evening openings, commented visits, and sometimes off-site events in partnership with other Parisian museums.
❤️ Street art, art from the heart
Leaving the Banksy Museum is a bit like waking from a dream.
You return to the street, the noise, the city’s walls… but you see them differently.
Every wall becomes a possible canvas, every poster an inspiration.
The exhibition reminds us that museums are not just closed spaces.
They can be living spaces, open to the world, where graffiti, sculpture, painting, and urban photography intersect to tell the story of our time.
Banksy, without ever showing his face, has succeeded in creating a living museum, an ephemeral gallery that speaks to everyone.
And in Paris, this artistic immersion has finally found its home.
