The Bonnat-Helleu Museum in Baiona opens its doors today after 14 years of work and a duplicate exhibition space
The renovation of the museum has involved an investment of EUR 29 million, which has made it possible to double the exhibition space to 2,000 square metres, an area which is expected to provide the size of the 7,000 works preserved by the institution.
The Bonnat-Helleu Museum has reopened today in Bayonne after 14 years of closure due to a major renovation process that has involved an investment of 29 million euros and has made it possible to double the exhibition space to 2,000 square metres, an area that the organization wants to keep at the bottom of the 7,000 works it preserves.
The Museum is the most important museum in the Louvre outside Paris and contains paintings, sculptures, drawings and objects from antiquity to the 20th century. Its collection highlights the works of El Greco, Rubens, Goya, Miguel Ángel, Degas, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rafael or Delacroix.
The institution offers a prominent presence, especially in the framework of the portrait, of the Bayonne painter Léon Bonnat, where he obtained his greatest approval. The museum bears his name because, when he died in 1922,he had ceded the private collection of his 3,000 works , which became the founding centre of the current fund.
The museum's other surname, Helleu, is that of painter Paul-César Helleu, a prominent figure in the portrait and engraving of the late nineteenth century.
The reopening has aroused a great deal of interest in Baiona, and Basque cultural agents have shown their willingness to learn about new developments after a long wait.
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