Musée départemental de l'Arles antique

The Musée départemental de l'Arles antique, also known as the Musée de l'Arles et de la Provence antiques or informally as the Musée bleu, is an archaeological museum located in Arles in the Bouches-du-Rhône département of France. Inaugurated in 1995 within a modern triangular building designed by architect Henri Ciriani, the museum is dedicated to the Gallo-Roman period and visualizes the history of human settlement in Arles and its surroundings from prehistory to the end of the Roman era. It holds the city's archaeological collections and operates under the jurisdiction of the conseil départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône.

Local preservation efforts in Arles began as early as the 17th century, when a 1614 decree mandated that all archaeological discoveries on municipal territory be deposited in the city's collections. During the 18th century, antiquities were displayed in the city hall and open-air jardins d'Antiquité, with a small museum established on the Alyscamps site in 1784. As collections expanded significantly in the 19th century, the antiquities were moved in 1826 to the Sainte-Anne church, becoming the Musée lapidaire. In 1936, the Jesuit chapel was annexed to accommodate further growth, arbitrarily splitting the pagan and Christian collections. In 1968, museum curator Jean-Maurice Rouquette conceived a project to reunite all archaeological collections in a single modern facility equipped with a mosaic restoration workshop and an archaeology laboratory. Henri Ciriani won the architectural competition in 1983, and the new museum opened in 1995, replacing the outdated and spatially constrained former venues.

The museum's permanent exhibition is organized chronologically for the pre-Roman and post-Roman periods, and thematically for the Roman era across seven distinct sections. These sections cover Arles before the Romans, the Roman presence, the major fluvio-maritime port, crafts and agriculture, daily life, Roman funerary rites, and the early Christian world. The collection is particularly renowned for its late Roman sarcophagi, which are surpassed in number and quality only by the Vatican Museums in Rome. These sarcophagi illustrate the transition from pagan to Christian symbolism in their decorative reliefs. Alongside archaeological finds, the museum employs an extensive didactic approach, featuring scale models of ancient structures and systematic vitrines for small finds, supplemented by explanatory panels.

The museum houses monumental Roman sculptures, including a colossal hip-mantled statue of Augustus discovered in the ancient theater, with a torso found in 1750 and a head in 1834. A copy of the Venus of Arles, a 205 cm marble Roman copy of a Greek original, is exhibited here, while the original remains in the Louvre. Other significant sculptures include a 45 cm marble bust of a young prince dated to 160, a bust of Aphrodite, the Altar of Apollo, a bronze Faun statue recovered from the sea near Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in 1967, and a limestone statue of Medea. The sarcophagus collection features notable pieces such as the Sarcophage des Epoux, the Sarcophage des Muses, the Sarcophage de la Chasse, the Sarcophage de l'orante, the Sarcophage de Concordius, and two sarcophagi depicting the Passage of the Red Sea. A mosaic gallery allows visitors to view large pavements from above, and the museum displays a model of the Barbegal water mills, recognized as the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world.

Situated on a peninsula southwest of the historic center, the museum sits between the Rhône River and the Canal de l'Ecluse, immediately adjacent to the remains of the Roman circus. Henri Ciriani's 1995 design is based on an elongated triangular plan, organized around a central patio that divides the structure into three functional wings: the permanent collections, the culture wing housing the library and visitor services, and the scientific wing containing restoration workshops and reserves. Built of concrete, the facades are clad in blue émalit, an enameled glass symbolizing the Arles sky, which gave the building its Musée bleu nickname. To exhibit the Arles-Rhône 3, a 31-meter Roman barge discovered in the Rhône in 2004, an 800 square meter rectangular extension was added to the northwest face of the building. Inaugurated in 2013, the extension positions the barge over a foss to give the impression it is floating, surrounded by artifacts recovered from the wreck and the Rhône delta, including a rare wooden anchor with a lead stock.

The museum is located in Arles, France, separated from the old town by the N113 road. It is owned and operated by the conseil départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône. In addition to its permanent archaeological displays, the institution features a hall for temporary exhibitions. The museum is accessible to the public and provides visitor services within its designated culture wing.