The Duke of Galliera was a partner in the urban planning firm Thome & Cie, and owned a large parcel of land in one of the finest neighborhoods in Paris.

[1] On 22 June 1886, Jules Grévy and Georges Clemenceau convened the Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic and adopted a law expelling any person who was a direct heir of a royalist dynasty that had reigned in France.

The Duchess Galliera, who had descended from the House of Orléans, was outraged by the law, no less because she had already donated the Hôtel Matignon to France.

[1] The Duchess died in December 1888, before the museum was completed, but in May 1889, her heirs gave the City of Paris 1.3 million francs to finish its construction.

In the absence of the Galliera art collection, for which it was designed, the City of Paris used the museum for temporary displays.

The building is faced in cut stone in the Italian Renaissance style supported by an underframe of steel, constructed by the Eiffel Company.

The statues on the façade that fronts Avenue du President Wilson represent "Painting" by Henri Chapu, "Architecture" by Jules Thomas, and "Sculpture" by Peter Cavelier.