Announced in 2000 with 350 artworks, the collection boasts more than 1200 works today. Initially proposed as a 20 year loan, the collection will, in part, become a donation - a donation to the State, permanently on loan in Avignon. Appointed by the Ministry of Culture, the expert nominated to quantify this collection considered that the French State had not had a collection so rich in terms of quality nor quantity since the famous Picasso donation of the 1970s - more evidence that the collection is prestigious. In effect, it is indeed rare to have such a representation of artworks for each artist, each art movement - be they emblematic, rare, precious or intimate.

Built up since the 1960s, the Collection Lambert represents the tastes, aspirations and the passions of the collector: a dealer since that time, Yvon Lambert fought against the academicism of French painting that had, since the war, refused to recognise that the world centre for artistic creativity was no longer the Paris of those glory years, but triumphal America. Minimal Art, Conceptual Art, Land Art represent the mainstays of our collection. In the 1980s, the dealer/collector turned to the new, more figurative painting, then in the 1990s photography picked up all his suffrages. Since the 1990s, video, installations and painting make up the essential of his purchases allowing for the collection to grow, always looking to young artists of the future.

The collection is built up of very coherent ensembles of works for each artist, to the point that for certain, Avignon is the only place in France where one can admire so many masterpieces. This is the case for Cy Twombly, with the exhibition Blooming (Summer 2007) that will allow for the discovery of his work (more than 30 pieces) but also for Robert Ryman (more that 10 paintings on canvas), for Andres Serrano - the artist having donated 120 photographs in 2006, Sol LeWitt (more than 35 sculptures, works on paper and wall drawings) and Nan Goldin (70 shots)... We should also mention Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Daniel Buren, Dennis Oppenheim, Gordon Matta-Clark, Anselm Kiefer, Miquel Barceló, Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Douglas Gordon and Bertrand Lavier...