Museums need just as much care as the artefacts and artworks they house. Just this year, Paris’s Centre Pompidou shut up shop for a five-year revamp. But renovations on this particular institution in the French Basque country have taken so long that locals wondered if it would ever reopen.
Luckily, it has. After shutting its doors for a facelift back in 2011, the fine arts Bonnat-Helleu Museum in Bayonne, which houses an extensive collection of French Old Masters to rival the Louvre’s, officially reopened on November 27.
So, what took so long? Well, according to Le Monde, the cost of the renovation was woefully underestimated. Originally earmarked with a budget of €10 million, this didn’t factor in the cost of new furniture, roadworks surrounding the building and educational resources. There were also plans to update the building’s basement, but its proximity to the Adour River (and the subsequent potential for flooding) weren’t considered. The cash spent has since built up to to €35 million.
On top of that, the museum’s leadership has turned over quickly – in fact, there have been three directors in the last three years, and plans only started to take proper shape when Barthélemy Etchegoyen Glama, an École Normale Supérieure graduate and former advisor to Louvre president Laurence des Cars, joined the project.
Now that it’s reopened, the museum aims to double its pre-renovation intake of visitors, which will be between 60,000-80,000 per year. To do that, there’s going to be an emphasis on a ‘renewed museum experience’, with intuitive curation based on artistic themes and ideas. The museum will also lean into its Bayonne heritage by participating in festivals and showcasing the region’s artistic legacy.
‘Emotion is key to our museum experience, we want it to feel welcoming, not intimidating,’ Hélène Ferron, head of the museum’s collections, told The Art Newspaper.
What can we expect at the newly reopened Bonnat-Helleu Museum?
Known as the ‘Little Louvre’, the museum’s official name comes from two painters who left works to the museum: Léon Bonnat and Jean Helleu. It’s home to works from world-renowned artists like Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, and Michelangelo, and boasts the second most impressive collection of Old Master art in France – 7,000 works now call this place home, 2,500 of which are on long-term loan from the Louvre. More specifically, of those works 3,500 are drawings, and 50 will be displayed at a time and rotated quarterly.
Everything from Giandomenico Facchina’s mosaic floors to the central courtyard’s diamond-shaped roof have been restored, and a neighboring school building was acquired to add fresh exhibition spaces (which have doubled in size), a café and office facilities to the building.
Check the museum website for opening times and information on tickets, then peruse our roundup of the world’s coolest and most impressive museums.
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