Initially a municipal archaeologist from Caen, he managed numerous excavation sites and became a curator, then director of the Musée de Normandie until 2009.

His task was notably defending the restoration and extension project by Jean Nouvel together with a public-private partnership with the oil magnate Jean-Claude Gandur.

Since, he participated as one of the consultants in the elaboration of a new project by a group of extern experts under the direction of Jacques Hainard, the former director of the ethnographic museum in Geneva and the Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel, and Roger Mayou, the former director of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

[2] He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in the conservation of the heritage and museology of the University of Geneva.

[6] Jean-Yves Marin is the author of fifty articles and reviews of archaeological excavations (Annales de Normandie, Gallia, Medieval Archeology) and numerous contributions in exhibition catalogs.