The museum in Paralives is one of the most satisfying long-term goals the game offers. While your Para is out earning money, building skills, and managing relationships, there are 108 collectibles scattered across town waiting to be picked up, dug out of buried chests, or grown in a greenhouse. Donate enough of them and the museum fills up with exhibits while you pocket increasingly generous rewards. Here's everything you need to know.
Where is the museum and how does donating work?
The museum sits in the northwest part of town, directly to the left of the Library. You can find it quickly on day one by accepting the Discover the Town quest from the newspaper, which includes a museum donation task. Click the magnifying glass icon next to that task and the camera pulls straight to the building.
There are two donation boxes. One is inside the museum, accessible only during opening hours (8:00 to 21:00). The second is outside on the right-hand side of the main entrance, so you can drop off items any time of day without worrying about the schedule.
Interact with either box and select Make a Donation. A two-panel menu appears: your Household Inventory on one side, your Museum Donation Progress on the other. Select the items you want to hand over and confirm.
Museum donation box location
What are the four collectible types?
Collectibles fall into four categories: Paintings, Artifacts, Mushrooms, and Gems. The total count sits at 108 donatable items across all four groups.
- Paintings (41 total): Found exclusively inside buried chests. Look for patches of disturbed earth around town.
- Artifacts (29 total): Also buried in chests alongside paintings. Includes tools, historical objects, and decorative items.
- Mushrooms (20 total): Spawn on the ground in forest areas and around town. Can also be grown in a Mushroom Greenhouse purchased from the General Store.
- Gems (18 total): Found near rocks and cliffs around town.
Collectibles reset at midnight each day, so uncollected items from the previous day disappear and a fresh set spawns. Building a daily route pays off quickly.
All museum donation rewards
The museum tracks your total unique donations and hands out rewards at 11 milestones. You do not need to donate every collectible to claim all rewards; the final milestone sits at 90 out of 108 possible items.
The cash payouts alone (250 + 500 + 1,500 + 2,000 = 4,250 Paradimes total) make early donation runs worthwhile even before you factor in the laptop and green energy items. If you're trying to stack Paradimes efficiently, check out the Paralives guide on getting rich fast for methods that pair well with museum runs.
Donation milestone reward panel
All paintings (rarity breakdown)
Paintings are split into common, uncommon, and rare tiers. Rare paintings, like the Mona Lisa, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, tend to appear later in the game. Several players report finding their first rare paintings only in Year 2, so do not expect to complete this category quickly.
Common paintings (13)
Girl with a Red Hat, Don Quijote, Emma Hart as Circe, Woman Combing Her Hair, Landscape with the Good Samaritan, Cats and Kittens, The Equatorial Jungle, The Houses of Parliament Sunset, Birds Insects and Flowers, Three Pears, Singing Bird on a Branch, Lady with an Ermine, The Beach at Trouville
Uncommon paintings (16)
The Swing, Madame X, The Autumn, Marie Antoinette With a Rose, Self-Portrait, The Black Boxer, Nighthawks, Woman with a Parasol, Alexander Condemning False Praise, The Life Line, Swallow and Lotus, The Gleaners, The Storm, Attributes of Painting Sculpture and Architecture, The Fall of Anarchy, The Threatened Swan
Rare paintings (12)
Young Sick Bacchus, Liberty Leading the People, Mona Lisa, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, The Japanese Footbridge, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Ophelia, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Kiss, Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, Mending the Sail
All artifacts (rarity breakdown)
Artifacts share chest spawns with paintings. Common artifacts like the Anchor, Anvil, and Leather Scraps show up across all four seasons. Rare artifacts including the Crown, Coins, Spinning Jenny, Ship Bell, Diving Helmet, and First Photograph are harder to find and several appear only from Year 2 onward.
Common artifacts (10)
Medal, Tin Can, Cannonball, Anchor, Anvil, Leather Scraps, Axe Head, Leatherworking Pliers, Champagne Bottle, Pipe
Uncommon artifacts (10)
Piece of Old Map (three variants), Viking Sword, Cannon, Key, Spyglass, Industrial Mold, Phonograph, Camera, Broken Plate, Pitcher
Rare artifacts (9)
Lace Trim, Crown, Bell, Coins, Founding Ring, Spinning Jenny, Ship Bell, Diving Helmet, First Photograph
Buried chest artifact spawn point
All mushrooms (rarity and locations)
Mushrooms are the most common collectible category and the easiest to farm consistently. Common varieties like Fly Agaric, Oyster, Pine, King Trumpet, Porcini, Yellow Russula, and Shiitake spawn in both forest and town areas and can also grow in a Mushroom Greenhouse from the General Store.
Rare mushrooms are the ones worth planning around. Black Trumpet and Turkey Tail only appear in forest spawns (plus the greenhouse), while Morel and Puffball show up in town. Truffle is forest-only and marked rare. If you want to track down gemstone ore at the same time as mushrooms, the Paralives gemstone ore location guide covers exactly where to look.
All gems (rarity breakdown)
Gems spawn near rocks and cliffs. They are smaller than mushrooms and easier to miss, so zooming in while patrolling cliff edges and rocky paths makes a real difference. Common gems like Quartz, Iron, Bronze, Citrine, Amber, Jade, Malachite, and Tourmaline appear across most seasons. Rare gems (Gold, Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald) show up less frequently, with Sapphire and Gold reported as first-time finds in Year 2 for some players.
Gem ore spawn near cliffs
What's the best strategy for reaching 90 donations fast?
Start with mushrooms. They reset daily and common varieties appear everywhere, so a 10-minute morning route can net 5 to 8 mushrooms per day without much effort. Pair that with checking disturbed earth patches for chest artifacts and paintings on the same loop.
For gems, focus your patrol on cliff edges and rocky terrain. The smaller size makes them easy to walk past, but once you know the spawn zones they become reliable pickups.
The greenhouse is worth buying early if you want to guarantee mushroom variety. Growing rare mushrooms like Truffle or Turkey Tail at home removes the dependency on random forest spawns.
Keep duplicates rather than selling them immediately. While the museum will not take them, they contribute to other donation systems in town. The Paralives community center donations guide explains which items those bundles require, and some mushrooms and gems overlap.
For a broader look at everything the game offers beyond collectibles, the full Paralives guides collection covers skills, careers, stamps, and more.