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Origin and history

The Anne-de-Beaujeu Museum is a departmental museum of art and history located in Moulins, in the Renaissance Pavilion of the Palace of the Dukes of Bourbon. Founded in 1910, it is the result of the merger of municipal collections (created in 1842) and the Bourbonnais demulation Society (1852), enriched by the legacy of Louis Mantin, a local collector. The pavilion, built around 1500, illustrates early Renaissance architecture in France and bears the name of Anne de Beaujeu, daughter of Louis XI and patron of the arts.

The museum found its origins in the revolutionary confiscations of 1795, when a first curator, Claude-Henri Dufour, gathered works in the chapel of the Visitation convent. Closed shortly thereafter, this primitive museum saw its collections returned to the clergy. In 1842, the town of Moulins recreated a municipal museum, set up at the town hall, centered on paintings and medals. The Bourbonnais demulation society, founded in 1845, added local archaeological objects, leading to the opening of a departmental museum in 1863.

Louis Mantin, sub-prefect and vice-president of the demulation society, left in 1905 his villa, his collections and a financial fund to unify the works in the pavilion Anne-de-Beaujeu. This legacy allowed the inauguration of the present museum on June 5, 1910. Since 2004, it has been managed by the Allier department and labeled "Musée de France". Its 20,000 pieces cover regional archaeology, the art of the Dukes of Bourbon, Flemish retables, eighteenth-century earthenware and academic painting.

The archaeological collections, the majority (60%), come from 19th-century local excavations, with pieces ranging from Paleolithic to Gallo-Roman times, such as Châtelperron furniture or terracotta figures. A space is dedicated to the Dukes of Bourbon, patrons of the 15th to 16th centuries, presenting sculptures like a Virgin of John of Chartres or fragments of the tomb of Louis II of Bourbon. The museum also exhibits Germanic altarpieces (Master of Uttenheim, Master of Frankfurt) and 19th-century academic works (Gérôme, Meissonier).

Mills, a faience center and cutlery in the 18th century, is represented by pieces in rock or chinery, as well as by luxury knives in gold and mother-of-pearl. Mantin House, annexed to the museum, offers an example of a bourgeois dwelling of 1905, furnished and decorated according to the tastes of the era. The Anne-de-Beaujeu Pavilion, one of the first Renaissance buildings in France, and the Mantin House are both listed as Historic Monuments.

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