Musée Picasso

A large portion of items were donated by Picasso's family after his death, in accord with the wishes of the artist, who lived in France from 1905 to 1973.

The mansion has changed hands several times by sale or inheritance although the occupants have included the Embassy of the Republic of Venice (1671), then François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi; it was expropriated by the State during the French Revolution; in 1815 it became a school, in which Balzac studied; before housing the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1829.

Other proposals were submitted by Roland Castro and the GAU (Groupement pour l'Architecture et l'Urbanisme), Jean Monge, and Carlo Scarpa.

[5] This is complemented by Picasso's own personal art collection of works by other artists, including Renoir, Cézanne, Degas, Rousseau, Seurat, de Chirico and Matisse.

[citation needed] The third floor contains the library, the documentation and archives department (reserved for research), and the curator's offices.

More than 5,000 works were donated by Picasso's family after his death in 1973 under a law permitting heirs to contribute art in lieu of tax payments.

[8] In a period of economic crisis and government cutbacks on funding for culture, longtime director Anne Baldassari still managed to raise $41 million for the makeover by exporting artworks for exhibition abroad.

[11] New director Laurent Le Bon reopened the museum in September 2014 following a €52 million five-year renovation dogged by delays and escalating costs.

[12] By the end of the ongoing construction work, the museum's public space was to nearly triple, to around 58,000 square feet, by moving staff offices to a newly purchased building.