The Prints and Photographs Department holds the world’s biggest picture collection, unique for its wealth of material on past centuries, and a living museum of contemporary art. It houses more than 15 million graphic materials of a wide variety of types: drawings – in particular of architecture -, prints, photographs, posters, labels, postcards, fabric samples, playing cards, etc.
The Department also holds an important collection of documentary sources in the field: books, periodicals, sale catalogues...
Numerous exhibitions are organized to highlight the collections. A wide range of news about old and contemporary engravings is collected and disseminated in the Nouvelles de l’Estampe magazine published by the Department.