A specialized library

Opening hours

Tuesday-Friday: 2pm – 6pm

On-site consultation, on request:

Free access:

  • A selection of books about artists represented in the collection, in connection with current exhibitions or about a museum’s life and activities; periodicals about fine arts.

The library will be closed:
27.12.2021 — 9.1.2022

Covid-19

According to the current federal rules, the access to cultural activities indoors is retricted to holders of a valid Covid certificate + ID card. This does not apply to youngsters and children under the age of 16. Wearing a mask is no longer compulsory indoors.

FAQ Covid certificate

Contact

Bibliothèque du Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts
Place de la Gare 16
1003 Lausanne
bibliotheque.mcba@vd.ch
+41 21 316 34 56

Art history, artist’s monographs, exhibition catalogues, museology, the art market, cultural outreach, conservation, and private collections...

The MCBA library offers a specialized collection in the field of the plastic arts from the 19th century to the present day: painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, video and new media, with a particular focus on the artists in the museum’s collections, on Vaud artists and on the arts in the canton of Vaud.
Some 40,000 works (exhibition catalogues, museum catalogues, artists’ monographs, specialist periodicals, auction catalogues) can be consulted on site only.

The library also holds the archives of the MCBA and the archives of the Association of Friends of the Museum. It also houses the Balthus Archives.

To download (in french)

Resources


For the complete catalogue of the MCBA’s library: search here

Links

Searching the archives...

1989: Pierre Kuenzi requests access to the MCBA library