{"id":609026,"date":"2025-12-03T06:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T06:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/609026\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T06:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T06:48:12","slug":"a-major-french-art-museum-known-as-the-little-louvre-has-reopened-after-14-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/609026\/","title":{"rendered":"A Major French Art Museum Known As The \u2018Little Louvre\u2019 Has Reopened After 14 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Museums need just as much care as the artefacts and artworks they house. Just this year, Paris\u2019s Centre Pompidou shut up shop<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u2019s, officially reopened on November 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what took so long? Well, according to Le Monde<\/a>, the cost of the renovation was woefully underestimated. Originally earmarked with a budget of \u20ac10 million, this didn\u2019t factor in the cost of new furniture, roadworks surrounding the building and educational resources. There were also plans to update the building\u2019s basement, but its proximity to the Adour River (and the subsequent potential for flooding) weren\u2019t considered. The cash spent has since built up to to \u20ac35 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On top of that, the museum\u2019s leadership has turned over quickly \u2013 in fact, there have been three directors in the last three years, and plans only started to take proper shape when Barth\u00e9lemy Etchegoyen Glama, an \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure graduate and former advisor to Louvre president Laurence des Cars, joined the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s 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\u2019s going to be an emphasis on a \u2018renewed museum experience\u2019, with intuitive curation based on artistic themes and ideas.\u00a0The museum will also lean into its Bayonne heritage by participating in festivals and showcasing the region\u2019s artistic legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Emotion is key to our museum experience, we want it to feel welcoming, not intimidating,\u2019 H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Ferron, head of the museum\u2019s collections, told The Art Newspaper<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What can we expect at the newly reopened Bonnat-Helleu Museum?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Known as the \u2018Little Louvre\u2019, the museum\u2019s official name comes from two painters who left works to the museum: L\u00e9on Bonnat and Jean Helleu. It\u2019s 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 \u2013 7,000 works now call this place home, 2,500 of which are on long-term loan from the Louvre.\u00a0More specifically, of those works 3,500 are drawings, and 50 will be displayed at a time and rotated quarterly.<\/p>\n

Everything from Giandomenico Facchina\u2019s mosaic floors to the central courtyard\u2019s diamond-shaped roof have been restored, and a neighboring school building was acquired to add fresh exhibition spaces (which have doubled in size), a caf\u00e9 and office facilities to the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Check the museum website<\/a> for opening times and information on tickets, then peruse our roundup of the world\u2019s coolest and most impressive museums<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ICYMI: <\/strong>Copenhagen\u2019s ice bar is back. Should it be?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Plus: <\/strong>This is officially the best album of 2025<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up to our <\/strong>free Time Out Travel newsletter<\/strong><\/a> for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Museums need just as much care as the artefacts and artworks they house. Just this year, Paris\u2019s Centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[2606,4021,4020,56478,13721,4022,77,190436,13722,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-609026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-audience-location-audience-worldwide","12":"tag-categories-art","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-europe-france","16":"tag-news-art","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115654302273473938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}