From the World Forum For Motor Museums 2026
It’s been almost 40 years since Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and Michael Ware, Director of the National Motor Museum set up a forum for road transport museums in order to foster problem solving, encourage networking and discussions. What they realised in 1988 still holds true today: while motoring museums partly face the same problems as other museums, there are a lot of issues stemming from the display of such a unique object.
The last two forums were held in Florida (The Revs Institute) and Japan (Toyota Automobile Museum) but this year the conference has returned to Europe. The Musée National de l'Automobile, collection Schlumpf in Mulhouse hosted around 60 delegates who came from all over the world – including Brazil, Japan, USA and Australia.
The presentations were wide-ranging and colourful. Among others, Peter Armstrong CEO of British Motor Museum talked about the transformation of the museum based on the results of a survey among its audience. Alexndre Martinez Milla described the unique Museu Carde in Brazil, which fuses art and automobiles. We also heard from the Kannieboyina family, whose Sudha Cars Museum in India holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of wacky vehicles.
The National Automobile Museum provided the perfect background. We toured its reserves and also had an opportunity to visit other sites, such as the European Parliament and the Peugeot Museum.
Museums which are interested to join, c heck out the organization’s website .
