Interior of Classical Church (c1643). Oil on panel. 72 x 95. Sale $17,200 (2013, Sotheby's, L13030, 43). The Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille is a municipal museum dedicated to fine arts, modern art, and antiquities. It is one of the largest art museums in France. It was one of the first museums built in France, established under the instructions of Napoleon I at the beginning of the 19th century as part of the popularisation of art. Jean-Antoine Chaptal's decree of 1801 selected fifteen French cities to receive the works seized from churches and from the territories occupied by the armies of Revolutionary France. The painters Louis Joseph Watteau and François Watteau, known as the Watteau of Lille, were heavily involved in the museum's beginnings-Louis Joseph Watteau made in 1795 the first inventory of the paintings confiscated during the Revolution, whilst his son François was deputy curator of the museum from 1808 to 1823. The museum opened in 1809 and was initially housed in a church confiscated from the Récollets before being transferred to the city's town hall. In 1866, the musée Wicar, formed from the collection of Jean-Baptiste Wicar, was merged into the Palais des Beaux-Arts. Construction of the Palais's current Belle Époque-style building began in 1885 under the direction of Géry Legrand, mayor of Lille, and it was completed in 1892. The architects chosen to design the new building were Edouard Bérard and Fernand Etienne-Charles Delmas from Paris. The building is located on the place de la République, in the center of the city, facing the préfecture of Lille. It was renovated during the 1990s and reopened in 1997. At the start of the 1990s, the building's poor state and the moving of Vauban's relief models of fortified towns to Lille forced the town to renovate the building. Work began in 1991, under the architects Jean-Marc Ibos and Myrto Vitart, and was completed in 1997. This allowed the creation of a new 700 m 2 basement room for temporary exhibitions, as well as departments for the relief models and for 19th-century sculpture. Overall the museum covers 22000 m 2 and held 72430 pieces in 2015, one of the largest collections of fine arts in province. Its sculptures, paintings, drawings, ceramics and so on include works by Raphael, Donatello, Van Dyck, Tissot, Jordaens, Rembrandt, Goya, El Greco, David, Corot, Courbet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Rubens, Rodin, Claudel and Jean-Baptiste Chardin. Ascension of the Elect, Dirk Bouts, oil on wood. Fall of the Damned, Dirk Bouts, oil on wood. Portrait of man, skull in a niche, Barthel Bruyn, oil on wood. Three donors with Saint John the Baptist, Barthel Bruyn the Younger, oil on wood. The Virgin and the Sleeping Jesus, Joos van Cleve, oil on wood. The Virgin nursing the Infant Jesus, Joos van Cleve, oil on wood. Christ blessing the Virgin, Jacob Cornelisz van Amsterdam, oil on wood. The Virgin, the Infant Jesus and saint Cecilia, Domenico Panetti. Trinity, triptych of Marchiennes, Jean Bellegambe, oil on wood. Triptych of the mystic bath, Jehan Bellegambe, oil on wood. Feast of Herod, Donatello, marble. Vanity, Jan Sanders van Hemessen, oil on wood. Virgin and Child surrounded by angels, Master of the foliage in embroidery, triptych, oil on wood. Portraits of Louis de Quarre and Barbe de Cruysinck as donors; saint Barbara and saint Louis on foot under arcades, Master of the foliage in embroidery, oil on wood. The Virgin in glory amidst the apostles, Master of the Lyversberg Passion, oil on wood. Adoration of the Shepherds, Maîster of the Lille Adoration, oil on wood. Preaching of saint John the Baptist, Master of the Lille Preaching, oil on wood. Vierge au lait, Maître des Madones mosanes, marble. Adoration of the Magi, Maître MS, oil on wood. Saint Dorothea and Saint Mary Magdalen, Master of saint-Séverin, two panels, oil on wood. Noli me tangere, Lambert Sustris. The Resurrection and La Vierge du rosaire, anonymous, South German, oil on wood. Adoration of the Magi, anonymous, triptych, oil on wood. Saint Henri and saint Cunégonde, saint Jerome and a bishop saint, predella of the retable of saint George, anonymous, Tyrol, oil on wood. Saint John the Baptist and saint Catherine, anonymous, German, oil on wood. Saint Barbara and two saints, anonymous, German, oil on wood. Sketch for Paradise, Veronese, oil on wood. Rest of the Holy Family, Pieter van Avont, oil on wood. Martyrdom of saint Maurice and his companions, Jan Boeckorst known as Lange Jan, oil on canvas. Allegory of worldly vanities, Pieter Boel, oil on canvas. Coronation the Virgin, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, oil on canvas. Ecstasy of saint Rosalie of Palermo, Theodor Boeyermans, oil on canvas. The Nativity