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Key figures

Origin and history

The Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology of Châlons-en-Champagne was established in 1794 as a departmental museum to preserve the movable property confiscated from emigrants and religious houses. Installed in Godart Square, today it presents permanent collections on 800 m2 and temporary exhibitions on 300 m2. His frontons, carved by Gustave Navlet in 1890-1891, adorn the façade.

The museum houses a rich collection of paintings, including works by Joos de Momper, Pierre Brébiette, Joos van Cleve, and Robert Antral. Among the sculptures are works by Auguste Rodin, such as a bust dedicated to Léon Bourgeois, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1920. A major donation from 1872 by Pierre-Eugène Lamairesse, including statues from Tamil Nadu, was the subject of a temporary exhibition in 2013.

The collections also include 16th and 17th century enamels, medieval sculptures, and a donation of 129 works by Georges Mielle in 1976, covering the 16th to 20th centuries. A room is dedicated to famous Châlonnais, like Nicolas Appert, inventor of food preserve. The museum also has an ornithological collection of 2,000 birds and fossils, as well as chimney patches exposed in the Vendel passage.

Marking temporary exhibitions include On the road to India (2013), in partnership with the Musée du quai Branly, and Maurice Pierrat, the taste of exoticism (2019). The museum is supported by FRAC Champagne-Ardenne and the Société des amis des musées de Châlons-en-Champagne, which in 2010 offered a watercolour by Adolphe Willette and a drawing by Robert Antral.

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