Musée des Monuments français (1795–1816)

Following the nationalization of religious properties on 2 November 1789, the revolutionary government's Monuments Commission in late 1790 created a depository of cultural artefacts in the just-disestablished Augustinian convent of the Petits-Augustins.

[1] As revolutionary destructions accelerated, Lenoir gathered an increased number of sculptures and other objects into the deposit, including most of the decoration of the royal tombs in the Basilica of Saint-Denis following the National Convention's decision on 1 August 1793 to destroy these icons of the former monarchy.

He also collected mortal remains from the desecrated burials of monarchs in Saint-Denis (Hugh Capet, Philip IV, Charles V, Charles VI, Louis XII, Catherine de' Medici) and of other historical figures (Abelard and Héloïse, the Cardinal de Retz, Molière, La Fontaine, Boileau, Mabillon).

[2] Many of the objects were re-installed in the churches from which they had been transferred, including the royal burial monuments in Saint-Denis.

The royal remains collected by Lenoir were reinterred in Saint-Denis, and those of non-royals at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.