Petersen Automotive Museum

The Petersen Automotive Museum is a major automobile museum on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles focused on the history, technology and culture of the automobile; it was founded in 1994 and significantly renovated and reopened in 2015. The museum is a prominent stop on Los Angeles’ Museum Row.

Exhibits cover a broad range of automotive topics including classic cars, racing history, Hollywood and celebrity vehicles, design and engineering. The museum presents a mixture of permanent galleries and rotating special exhibitions, and it maintains a secure rotating collection known as the Vault where particularly rare or valuable vehicles are displayed on rotation.

Visitors also see restoration and conservation work, interpretive displays on automotive technology, and themed exhibitions that change periodically. The collection and exhibition programme make the museum useful both for car enthusiasts and for general audiences interested in design and popular culture.

Established by publisher and collector Robert E. Petersen in 1994, the museum expanded its collections and facilities over the following decades and underwent a high-profile renovation that updated galleries and added a distinctive exterior treatment before reopening in late 2015.

The museum is located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, on the city’s Museum Row, close to other cultural institutions and easily reached from central Los Angeles.

• Founding and renovation: Founded by Robert E. Petersen in 1994, the museum underwent a major renovation and reopened with a redesigned facade and galleries in December 2015.
• Collection size: Houses a rotating collection numbering in the hundreds, covering classic, racing, concept and celebrity vehicles.

What to See #

• The Vault: A secure rotating display called the Vault houses high-value and historically significant automobiles that are shown by rotation rather than permanent display.
• Specialised galleries: The museum organises themed galleries including racing history, Hollywood and car design, alongside a changing special-exhibitions space for temporary displays.
• Education and conservation: Education spaces and restoration workshops support conservation, school programmes and public interpretation of automotive technology and design.