In 1822, the General Council of Vosges having decided on the creation of "Museum", the departmental Museum occupies buildings(ships) of the old(former) hospital Saint-Lazare builds to the 17th century. It will be necessary to wait for 1956, that are shaved the school and the library(bookcase) annexed to the building(ship), so that the museum could have an open space towards the city(estate), privileged situation, midtown, between the Moselle and the channel(canal). An extension will be realised in 1970 by the team of Pierre-François Codou, Franck Hindley, Twill Caillaud (Paris) and Jean-Jacques Guyot (Nancy).
The departmental Museum of contemporary and old(former) art is one of the most important museums of Lorraine, both by quality and by scale of its collections: more than 34 000 objects and works of art are kept(preserved) there. Around the heads - of work of Georges de La Tour, Rembrandt and Claude le Lorrain, the collection of paintings(paints) and of sculptures proposes a wide panorama of European pictorial production, of 16th in the first half of the 20th century. The collection of contemporary art presents the big(great) European and American movements of fifty last years. Finally, the archaeological collections, of medieval art, the Renaissance, as well as arts and popular traditions allow to the public to discover the history(story) of Vosges, first human setting-up(presences) until the 19th century.

Musée, salle d'exposition, Musée de France & Villes et Pays d'art et d'histoire