The museum was created on the initiative of General Dubail , Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, and financed by an open subscription among legionnaires and military medallists, which was particularly successful in the United States. It was inaugurated in 1925. Over time, numerous donations from collectors (the Maurice Bucquet collection (1860-1921), the La Tour d'Auvergne Lauragais collection, the Pierredon collection) and also donations from foreign states to supplement existing collections have been added, and finally prestigious purchases and donations (the Cambacérès decorations case in 1982, the collar of the Royal Order of the Two Sicilies of Achille Murat in 2002). It is worth noting that since 2008 Antonio Benedetto Spada has deposited his collection at the museum: this collection is undoubtedly the most important in private hands.The museum occupies a modern wing built between 1922 and 1925 on the site of the former stables of the Hôtel de Salm , overlooking the forecourt of the Musée d'Orsay.