Emptying the Musée national d'art moderne (MNAM) of its artworks before the renovation of the Centre Pompidou that houses it was a monumental task. As soon as the galleries closed to the public on March 18, the teams had one priority: Tackling the "Breton Wall." This fascinating cabinet of curiosities, rich with 255 pieces, is a fragment of the Parisian studio that the poet André Breton (1896-1966) occupied at 42 Rue Fontaine, near Pigalle. "A museum within the museum," said Aurélie Verdier, the institution's curator, who has dedicated a reference book to it, Mur Mondes. L'Atelier d'André Breton ("World Walls: André Breton's Atelier", Centre Pompidou editions).

Behind his desk on a large, custom-made wooden shelf, the leader of surrealism meticulously displayed his treasures: a few paintings by his painter friends, like Miró or Picabia, but mainly artifacts from around the world and curiosities found at the Saint-Ouen flea markets.

Inuit and Oceanian masks, Mayan or kachina dolls, stones, roots, a fossilized sea urchin, a host mold, engraved whale bone, a box of mummified cicadas, an Egyptian amulet... It was "the eye in its wild state, a primal eye, free from all constraints," described Breton, who sought with this unique display to abolish all classification, all aesthetic hierarchy in "the hope of solving the world's enigma." A true endeavor for the MNAM, which entrusted its armada with this delicate relocation.

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