The institution is responsible for conserving, restoring, studying, enriching, presenting to the public and promoting collections in the sporting domain belonging to the State, local authorities, public establishments or private bodies, which are placed at its disposal by means of open-ended deposits or which it acquires for valuable consideration or free of charge on behalf of the State. State collections in the custody of the institution form part of the State’s public domain and are therefore inalienable.
The acquisition for a consideration from the resources of the institution, or free of charge, of works intended to form part of the national collections is decided by the Director General, in compliance with the provisions of article D. 112-14, 8° of article D. 112-17 and article D. 112-18.
In the event of an unfavourable opinion from the Steering Committee, where the Director General maintains his intention to acquire, the Minister for Sport will refer the matter to the Artistic Council of National Museums for an opinion. In the event of an unfavourable opinion from this council, if the value exceeds a threshold set by order of the ministers responsible for culture and sport, and if the Director General maintains his intention to acquire, the Minister responsible for sport will give an opinion.
Pursuant to article L. 442-11 of the French Heritage Code, the collections are placed under the scientific and conservation control of the Directorate General for Heritage and Architecture of the Ministry of Culture, which checks that the inventories are kept and that the rules applicable to the conservation management of public collections are complied with.