Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
The Musée des beaux-arts de Tours
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| Established | 4 March 1795 |
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| Location | 18, Place Francis Sicard, 37000 Tours |
| Coordinates | 47°23′43″N 0°41′42″E / 47.3952°N 0.6949°E |
| Type | Art museum |
| Website | Official site |
The Musée des beaux-arts de Tours (English: Museum of Fine Arts of Tours) is located in the bishop's former palace, near the cathedral St. Gatien, where it has been since 1910. It displays rich and varied collections, including that of painting which is one of the first in France both in quality and the diversity of the works presented.
In the courtyard, there is a magnificent cedar of Lebanon and a stuffed elephant in a building in front of the museum. This elephant was killed because of a bout of madness during a circus parade by the "Barnum & Bailey" circus in the streets of Tours on 10 June 1902.
The museum has over 12,000 works of which 1,000 are on show to the public. On the ground floor, the museum has a room especially dedicated to Tours art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The museum was classified as a monument historique on 27 June 1983.
The museum has a large and fairly homogeneous collection of paintings, which includes several masterpieces such as two paintings by Andrea Mantegna, from the predella of the San Zeno Altarpiece:
Christ in the garden of olives by Andrea Mantegna, 1459
The resurrection by Andrea Mantegna, 1459
Parable of the Unforgiving Servant by Claude Vignon, oil, 1629
Apollo Revealing his Divinity before the Shepherdess Isse by François Boucher, oil, 1750
Panoramic view of Tours by Demachy
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