The museum houses one of the largest collections of art from the Middle Ages, consisting of 23,000 items, of which about 2,300 are exhibited.

The Hôtel de Cluny is a rare extant example of the civic architecture of medieval Paris, erected in the late 15th century to replace an earlier structure built by Pierre de Chaslus after the Cluny Abbey acquired the ancient Roman baths in 1340.

[3] Later users included Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, who resided there in 1515, after the death of her husband Louis XII;[4] James V of Scotland in 1537, on the occasion of his wedding with Madeleine of Valois; and several 17th-century papal nuncios, including Mazarin.

The chapel also housed the printing press of Nicolas-Léger Moutard, official printer of the Queen of France from 1774 to 1792.

[6] During the French Revolution in 1789, the mansion was confiscated by the state, and for the next three decades served various purposes, including the use of the former Abbots' chapel as a dissection room.

[7] In December 1832, archeologist and art collector Alexandre Du Sommerard bought the Hôtel de Cluny and used it to display his large collection of medieval and Renaissance objects.

[10] In February 1926, the museum was brought under the aegis of the Louvre's department of decorative arts (Objets d'Art),[11] from which it was released in 1977.

[12] A new museography was created in the late 1940s, with a thematic display of works focusing on different workmanship categories and techniques such as stonework, ironwork, glasswork, etc.

A garden opened in 1971, including a 'unicorn's forest" inspired by the museum's iconic tapestries series of the Lady and the Unicorn.

This included a redesign of the Lady and the Unicorn display in 2013; cleaning-up of the Roman baths and medieval chapel in 2015–2017; the construction of a new building designed by architect Bernard Desmoulin [fr] for ancillary facilities in 2016–2018; and a chronologically reorganized display of medieval art collections, including structural alterations such as a new staircase in the building's northeastern corner, conducted from 2019 to 2022.

The renovated museum reopened on 12 May 2022, for a total cost of 23.1 million euros partly financed by the proceeds of the Louvre Abu Dhabi contract.

Here, the visitor can discover artifacts dating as far back as the romanization of the city of Parisii, such as the famous Boatman Pillar from the 1st century.

It contains inscriptions dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter as well as Celtic references, making it a great example of the two cultures melding together on one artifact.

[15] Starting with the founding of the city in Constantinople in 330, the emperor Constantine began an era known as the Byzantine period.

Another famous piece of Byzantine ivory found in the Cluny is the plaque that depicts the crowning of Otto II.

In 972, the emperor Otto II married the princess Théophano, who became the empress of Rome and can be seen in the ivory plaque as well.

From the Romanesque period onward, reliquaries and other religious artifacts were no longer kept in crypts, and instead were displayed on the altars in churches.

Referred to as the Majestic Christ capital, it was created for the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, the product of a collaboration between two workshops.

Another piece from Catalonia is a statue of a female saint made from wood that dating to the second half of the 12th century.

Limoges is located in the southwestern, central part of France; its gold and enameled masterpieces were collected throughout Europe by the end of the 12th century.

The goldsmiths and other artists produced varying kinds of products including crosses, shrines, altarpieces, candlesticks and much more.

The upper cathedral has 15 window bays that encircle the entire room, each 50 feet tall, giving the illusion that the visitor is surrounded by light.

Produced around 1260 in Paris, the statue depicts a nude Adam, who is covering himself with the leaves from a small tree.

[21] In the 15th century, the opulence of urban elites encouraged artistic production as the demand for art increased.

People began ordering artistic objects for everyday life, such as furniture, tapestries, ceramics, game pieces, etc.

There are the five main senses (smell, hearing, taste, touch and sight) and it is the sixth tapestry that depicts the Lady with the Unicorn.

The most commonly embraced interpretation understands the Lady as representing It a sixth sense of morality or spirituality, as she puts aside her worldly wealth.

The structure figures prominently in Chapter 41 of Moby-Dick, when Ishmael, probing Ahab's "darker, deeper" motives, invokes the building as a symbol of man's noble but buried psyche.