Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts

Bordeaux's Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1829, the curator managed to obtain a collection of 280 paintings comprising works from Italy, Belgium, Germany and Holland. The Dutch paintings elevated the city's public collection to one of the finest in the country. The north and south wings of the building were renovated in 1994. They are now home to the French and foreign schools of art from the 16th to the 18th Century; most noteworthy are exhibits from the Italian and Dutch schools as well as some 19th and 20th-century works ranging from the Romantic to the Impressionist periods. The museum also contains a library, an information center, a photography lab and a shop selling postcards and prints.