The Fondation Pierre Gianadda is the reason most visitors come to Martigny. The foundation mounts four or five major exhibitions per year — typically retrospectives of a single major artist, with a track record that includes Monet, Picasso, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Matisse — and the quality of loans it secures from international museums is remarkable for an institution in a Swiss market town.
The building also contains a permanent Gallo-Roman museum (built over the archaeological remains in the foundations), a vintage automobile museum with about 50 cars including early Bugattis and De Dion-Boutons, and an outdoor sculpture garden with large-scale works by Rodin, Miró, Calder, and others. The sculpture park is included with any museum ticket and is free to wander. Allow at least two hours; the temporary exhibitions alone often take that long.