Musée des Beaux-Arts – Nantes
The city of Nantes was chosen by the consular decree of August, 31 1801, together with other important French provincial cities, for the foundation of some museums, in order to share the works belonging to the collection of the Central Museum of Paris: thus was born the Musée des Beaux Arts, whose original nucleus was composed of about forty works. In the following years many other artistic goods were acquired by the municipalit, and added to this first collection.
However, there was not yet a suitable place to exhibit the paintings, which for several years were dispersed among the municipal offices; only in 1830, the collection was exhibited in the former Cloth Hall in rue de Calvaire.
In 1891, the City Council finally decided to build a venue specifically dedicated to house the collection: in 1900 the Palais des Beaux-Arts was inaugurated, built to a design by the architect Clément-Marie Josso.
Today, the museum preserves mainly European works that cover a vast period of time, from the thirteenth century to the present day, with a particular focus on Italian primitives, the seventeenth century, the nineteenth century and contemporary art. .
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Musée des Beaux-Arts
