With this imperial decree, dated 8 March 1862, Napoleon III founded the musée gallo-romain, eagerly awaited by the scientific community. It was intended as a home for the fruits of the work of the Commission de Topographie des Gaules and its correspondents: archaeological remains, papers concerning excavations, models, casts and books. It was designed for conservation, but also as an educational space and a centre for research.
Its status is shown as “deuxième conservation”, which implies that it was under the authority of the department of antiquities at the musée du Louvre. Claude Rossignol, an archivist from the Côte-d'Or region, was its first deputy curator.