Musee Thomas-Henry. The Musee des beaux-arts Thomas Henry is a museum at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin with around 300 artworks, mainly paintings from the 15th to 19th centuries. It has been rated as the third most important collection in Normandy. It was formed after a series of anonymous donations to the city between 1831 and 1835, totalling 163 paintings and later revealed to have been made by Thomas Henry, town councillor and art critic; having lost his two sons, he wanted to allow the city's young people to gain an education in art. These young people included Jean-François Millet, who copied paintings in the museum. In 1835, a museum was formed from these 163 paintings, including works by Italian 'primitives' such as Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi. The foundational collection was completed by gifts from other inhabitants of Cherbourg, including capitaine Troude, Armand Le Véel and the Ono family. From 1965, the city decided to supplement private donations and state funding for acquisitions, in favor of the Millet fund. Initially housed in the Hôtel de ville, the museum re-opened in a dedicated cultural centre in 1983, alongside the bibliothèque municipale Jacques-Prévert, on the site of the city's former grain Halles. It received 30,554 visitors in 2009, compared to 18,957 visitors in 2007.