Musée des automates, Automaton museum in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

The Musée des Automates occupies the hôtel Arturo Lopez, also called hôtel Rodocanachi, a pale yellow stone mansion with a grey slate mansard roof in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Tall black wrought-iron gates with scrollwork, flanked by two white stone pillars marked 12, open onto a courtyard; behind them the facade has arched windows with iron balconies above rectangular ones, and two circular oeil-de-boeuf dormers sit in the roof. The museum's 63 mechanical automata, made in France between 1850 and 1930, are shown in its rooms.

The building was constructed in 1903 for Paul Rodocanachi on the plan of an 18th-century hôtel particulier, and during the First World War its outbuildings housed convalescent soldiers. Arturo Lopez bought it in 1928 and enlarged it between 1950 and 1958. The municipality acquired it in 1971, and in 1978 the town bought 63 mechanical automata that formed the museum's founding collection; six more were bought at public auction between 1993 and 1996.

The automatons on display reflect how wealthy collectors in the late 1800s and early 1900s valued mechanical ingenuity as both art and entertainment. Walking through the rooms, you notice how these intricate figures once served as conversation pieces in elegant homes.

The museum is closed; the automata collection is shown only at occasional temporary exhibitions, so check what is on before travelling. The building at 12 is undergoing works from 2024 to become a cultural centre with a media library, music studios and exhibition space. Metro line 1 stops at Pont de Neuilly, a short walk away.

The ballroom of the hôtel Arturo Lopez is entirely covered in seashells, a decor carried out in 1956 by decorator Serge Royaux, modelled on the shell cottage at the château de Rambouillet. Salvador Dalí stayed in the house. The museum is closed and the building is being converted from 2024 into a cultural centre with a médiathèque and music studios.