'' (1872), which inspired the name of the
Impressionist movement, is exhibited in the museum. Originally a hunting lodge for the Duke of Valmy, the building at the edge of the
Bois de Boulogne was purchased in 1882 by Jules Marmottan, who later left it to his son, Paul Marmottan. The latter moved into the lodge and, with an interest in the Napoleonic era, he expanded his father's collection of paintings, furniture and bronzes. Marmottan bequeathed his home and collection, as well as his library (the
Bibliothèque Marmottan in Boulogne), to the
Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Académie opened up the house and collection as the Musée Marmottan in 1934.
1985 theft On October 27, 1985, during daylight hours, five masked gunmen with
pistols threatening security and visitors entered the museum and stole nine paintings from the collection. Among them were
Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) by
Claude Monet, the painting from which the
Impressionism movement took its name. Aside from that also stolen were
Camille Monet and Cousin on the Beach at Trouville,
Portrait of Jean Monet, Portrait of Poly, Fisherman of Belle-Isle and
Field of Tulips in Holland also by Monet,
Bather Sitting on a Rock and
Portrait of Monet by
Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
Young Woman at the Ball by
Berthe Morisot, and
Portrait of Monet by
Seiichi Naruse. The stolen paintings were valued at $12 million. A tip-off led to the arrest in Japan of a
yakuza gangster named Shuinichi Fujikuma who had spent time in French prison for trafficking
heroin and was sentenced for five years. There he met Philippe Jamin and Youssef Khimoun who were part of an art syndicate. Fujikuma, Jamin and Khimoun planned the Marmottan theft. In Fujikuma's house, police found a catalog with all the stolen paintings from the museum circled. Also found were two paintings by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot stolen in 1984 from a museum in France. This led to the recovery of the stolen paintings in a small villa in
Corsica in December 1990. == Collections ==