Closure of the Museum of Natural History in 2024

The Museum of Natural History in Geneva will be closing its doors to the public from 1 January 2024 for work that is estimated to take one year.

Associated article

Work at the Natural History Museum in Geneva

morse avec inscription de la fermeture du MHA

The Museum is being given a facelift

The work on the Museum (MHNG), launched in February 2023, is progressing well and will now require the Museum to close its doors to the public for at least one year to facilitate work in the exhibition building.

While it is closed, the museum will pursue its outreach programming while its teams actively prepare for the reopening.

The programme continues!

In 2024, the specimens of the MHNG will head off to meet objects from the collections of other museums, a chance to enjoy “unusual dialogues” in different cultural sites around Geneva.

The cultural and scientific programming will continue better than ever at the Museum of Science History, another Geneva Museum site. And the Nuit de la science will once again be hosted in the stunning Parc de la Perle du lac, during the weekend of 6-7 July.

The “Vélo! L’équilibre en mouvement” exhibition, designed in collaboration with the Museum of Art and History (MAH), will be hosted at the Musée Rath from 6 June to 22 September 2024. It is the chance to discover a large gallery of evolution of the bicycle, from its invention to the present day! And finally Janus, the MHNG’s two-headed tortoise, is waiting to see his admirers in his new temporary quarters at the Bioparc Genève!

The teams will be busy behind the scenes

Throughout 2024, the management, exhibition and mediation teams will be focussing their work on updating the permanent public galleries. This study project concerns the fauna from Switzerland and the rest of the world galleries (levels 0, 1, 2). A new permanent exhibition devoted to the history of life and the Earth (level 3) is also currently being developed. Renovated public reception areas will include a new documentarium, an enhanced café and a large shop.

The Museum’s scientists will continue their outstanding internationally renowned research. This year of work is particularly favourable to field missions, the aim of which is to collect and describe new specimens. The digitisation of the collections is also ongoing. It is also an ideal moment for the taxidermists to restore certain objects in the collections. The entire team at the Museum is also preparing to move certain collections to the new Ambre building.