When Yvon Lambert decide to install his collection of contemporary art in the Hôtel de Caumont, he did not know that Joseph de Seytres, seigneur de Verquières-en-Provence and marquis of Caumont was himself an illustrious collector.

Collector he was, as well as an erudite archeologist and bibliophile, who wrote as easily in French, Italian and Latin. His correspondence with notable figures througout Europe is conserved in the Bibliothèque d’Avignon. Born in the papal city in 1688, he possessed a garden that extended along the Saint-Louis hospice on Rue Violette (formerly Rue des Vieilles-Etudes) in which he planted sixty plane trees and forty-five orange trees.

He commissioned Jean-Baptiste Franque, the famous Villeneuvian architect chronologically next in line after Pierre Mignard, to build a residence. The foundationns were laid in 1720.

However, two years later the plaque that ravaged the Contat Venaissin interrupted work, to the partially completed in 1733. The Marquis de Caumont inhabited the hôtel until his death in 1745. One of his nine children, Joseph-François-Xavier inherited it and Jean-Baptiste Franque, followed by is son, François, continued working on it until 1751. At the beginning of the French Revolution the estate was seized and became national property. All of the furniture was sold.

Already in 1811 plans were in effect to transfer the prefecture to this hôtel "the most elegant in Avignon". But the department of the Vaucluse did not acquire it until 1878, for 130,000 francs. The next year a pedagogical institute was established there, succeeded by the Gendarmerie in 1899, when the Boulevard was created, destroying any memory of the large gardens.

Hardly anything remains of the interior disposition of the building, which suffered its last assault in the 1970s when the Hôtel de Caumont, adjoining the Hôtel de Montfaucon was turned into a liberal arts university. Its maintened this function until 1998. It was during this period that the two facades –one with a projecting avant-corps topped with a rounded pediment, the roofing concealed by a long balustrade, and the shaded interior court- were classed as historical monuments. In 1999, the Country Council presented the keys to the City of Avignon for the purpose of transforming it into a museum of contemporary art.

The Lambert Collection

The Lambert Collection was inaugurated in July 2000. It is the latest in this city whose stellars museum history has been constituted thanks to private collectors and benefactors, such as Campana for the Petit Palais and Puech for the Musée Calvet.

Yvon Lambert’s collection of contemporary art is unique in France. It twenty-five years, it was only been exhibited in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (1992) and Yokohama (1998). From the start, and in parallel with the activity of his gallery, Yvon Lambert assembled a collection that attests to his commitment and reputation in the international market. These include the stronghest and most representative artists of minimal art, conceptual art, and photography and video of the 1990s.

This collection is comprised of coherent ensembles from the works of Robert Ryan, Brice Marden, Carl Andre, Gordon Matta-Clark, Anselm Kieffer, Christian Boltanski, Andreas Serrano, Douglas Gordon… Artists such as Cy Twombly and Nan Goldin, absent from French national collections, are given priority. Due to the active interchange between the collector-gallerist ans his artists, the Yvon Lambert Collection is unusual and exemplary.

The estabishement of the museum was alchieved with the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Country Council, the Regional Council, and the City of Avignon – which has confirmed its artistic orientation since the papal city’s designation as Year 2000 Cultural Capital. The rehabilitation of the Hôtel de Caumont was commissioned to the architect Rudy Ricciotti, according to the museological program of the director of the Lambert Collection, Eric Mézil. Andrée Putman designed the bookstore and restaurant interiors.

Each year two large thematic exhibits are mounted, whether drawing on the chefs-d’œuvre from the collection or independent of them.Alternating with this, the collection is exposed in frequently renewed hanging arrangements. The Hôtel de Caumont also maintains an acquisition policy of site specific works, continually enriching its exceptional holdings.

The Lambert Collection