User:VBillaudeau/Museum of Art and History in Montmorillon

The Museum of Art and History in Montmorillon was created in 1936, at Montmorillon in Vienne. After closing for several years, the museum reopened in 2018.

The museum
The death of Raoul Carré, artist and native of the region, has been instrumental in the setting up of a museum in Montmorillon in 1936. The exhibition room, named the Raoul Carré laid out on the first floor of the town hall, brings together all the paintings donated to the museum by his widow. Thanks to this donation, several artists offered their creations to the museum. Raoul Mortier (professor) and Pierre Guéraud (a former archivist in the Louvre } proposed their help for the setting up of the new museum. Despite a promising start, the number of visitors in the museum dropped drastically, after the death of Pierre Guéraud in 1948, and it resulted into a long period of decline.

In 1966, a new life was given to the museum thanks to the discovery of the prehistorical site, “La Piscine”, in Montmorillon. The archaeological and historical society of Montmorillonnais was established as an association incorporated under French law. This association enabled the archaeological artifacts, discovered on the site, to be catalogued and valued. From 1977 the society was dealing with the management of collections to the museum. Which were then moved the town Hall to the Maison Dieu, where the tower museum and the (Paleolithic) stone museum were located. In 1998, the archaeological and historical society of Montmorillonnais was dissolved. This brought an end to several years of co-operative management, and led to the closure of both the tower museum and the stone museum. Although it is closed to the public, the museum received the appellation “Museum of France”, for the quality of its collections. Following this closure, an active restoration and acquisition policy has been developed which is enabling the museum's collections to be constantly enriched.