Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon was established by Napoleon's Chaptal Decree in 1801 and opened to the public in 1814. Housed in a former Benedictine abbey on the Place des Terreaux, it's one of France's largest and most important art museums outside Paris.

The holdings include 8,000 antiquities (with extensive Egyptian objects), 3,000 paintings, 15,000 works on paper, 1,000 sculptures, and 50,000 coins and medals. The antiquities collection began with 400 pieces transferred from the Louvre in 1895 and grew through archaeological discoveries. Collections span ancient Egypt through modern art, covering virtually every major European school.