Antoine Ferrand de Monthelon, founder of the school of drawings, bequeaths in 1752, his collection to the city of Reims.

[2] The Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1794, with objects seized during the French Revolution and was first housed in the city's town hall.

Throughout the 19th century, its collections grew via purchases and bequests, until in 1908, the city of Reims decided to buy a separate building to house it.

It had then undergone several uses since the Revolution, as the French Directory's district headquarters, a store for artworks from sold-off churches, in 1814 and 1815 a barracks for Russian occupation troops, and finally in 1822 as a grand seminary.

Though it also houses sculptures, drawings (including 13 exceptional watercolour portraits on paper by Lucas Cranach the Elder, on rotating show in a special room devoted to them), engravings, furniture and objets d’art, most of the museum's objects are paintings, notably from the Flemish, Dutch and French schools and by historic and modern artists, with the French school being the most prominently represented, notably the 17th century.