The Olympic Museum

The Olympic Museum brings together culture and sport to celebrate the values, endeavour and creativity of humanity in movement.

The Olympic Museum’s extraordinarily rich collections include items from all over the world, spanning the period from ancient times to the present day. The collections began to take shape in 1915, and have continued to grow and develop over the years.

The five collections that make up the museum’s public and private holdings are managed differently:

- The Olympic Museum Collection mainly includes artefacts from the Olympic Games, items illustrating the links between the IOC and the Olympic family, artworks related to sport or the Olympic Movement, and Olympic stamps and coins. Most of the Olympic Museum’s material, financial and human resources are devoted to this collection.
- The philatelic collection of former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch
- The private IOC collection
- The private collections of IOC Presidents, composed of gifts received in connection with the Presidents’ work. These must be preserved, at least while they are in office.
- Non-priority holdings that are not included in the collections as such. Some of these may relate to themes covered by the priority collections but are surplus to the museum’s requirements.