Museum Storage as an Active Cultural Resource. From Invisibility to Exhibition: The Case Study of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

The main subject treated in this thesis starts from an experience done during the Erasmus program, which included an internship at the Musée des Beaux-arts of Tours (France), carried out within the framework of a university exhibition project. With this project, it was possible to create a temporary exhibition based on artworks stored in the museum's off-site reserves, many of which had rarely or never been displayed to the public. During the project it was adopted an applied museological approach, and the purpose of this work is to critically examine the museological and curatorial practices experienced during the internship. This study aims to highlight the processes of selection, interpretation, and valorisation of the “invisible” museum heritage, exploring how collection management, spatial constraints, and cultural mediation act as essential tools in reactivating unexhibited collections. Furthermore, the research contextualises this case study within a broader theoretical framework on museum storage. It traces the evolution of storage facilities and the core principles of preventive conservation, looking at how spaces dedicated to unexhibited works have historically been conceived and managed. Ultimately, the internship experience serves therefore as a practical foundation to reflect on key issues in modern museology,particularly the shift of museum storage from a static repository to an active cultural and education resource.