Musée d'Orsay · 7e arrondissement

A Statue for Liberty, Bartholdi's Dream, from Paris to New York

Now showing15 September 2026 – 31 January 2027·€32

An exclusive virtual reality experience running alongside the Bartholdi exhibition, covering almost 700 m² in the Museum's Amont Gallery to trace the Statue of Liberty's journey from Paris to New York.

Exhibition website Book tickets

More in Paris

On now All of October 2026

In the headset, Gustave Eiffel in a blue frock coat explains his iron frame with both hands while Bartholdi leans over the worktable, a lattice model and a small Liberty between them. The artists painted these sets by hand in 3D rather than modelling them, and Sortiraparis called the watercolour look "a rarity for VR experiences".

The visit takes 50 minutes: archive prints and photos first, then 35 minutes of VR that you walk through on foot in a small group, in ten chapters from Laboulaye's salon in 1865 to New York Bay in 1886, then rooms on Liberty's copies and cartoons. The core is the vanished Gaget, Gauthier & Cie workshop on rue de Chazelles. In spring 1884 the Statue of Liberty was a Parisienne, poking above the rooftops of the 17th.

Expo.paris liked the money chapters best, "Le doute" and Pulitzer's appeal. The full timed ticket is €32 and includes the museum and the Bartholdi exhibition; it's €16 if you already have entry. Book ahead.

Look for

Eiffel and Bartholdi at the worktable
Look for Eiffel in a blue frock coat explaining his iron lattice frame to Bartholdi, with a model of the armature and a statuette of Liberty between them under tall glass roofs.
The rue de Chazelles workshop
The demolished Gaget, Gauthier & Cie foundry, rebuilt from plans and period photographs, where scaffolding, copper plates and the iron frame rise before the skin goes on.
The New York World office
Pulitzer sits at the centre with Laboulaye, Bartholdi and Eiffel around him, a meeting that never happened: Laboulaye died two years before the 1885 appeal.
The Nile chapter
Bartholdi on the banks of the Nile, where he once dreamed of a giant lighthouse at the entrance to the Suez Canal.
The post-show rooms
After the headset comes off, three sets follow Liberty's afterlife: copies around the world, pop culture, and political use from 19th-century press cartoons to today.