Museo O'Higginiano y de Bellas Artes de Talca, Public art museum in Talca, Chile

The Museo O'Higginiano y de Bellas Artes de Talca occupies a colonial house on the corner of 1 Norte and 2 Oriente, built in the 1790s and declared a national monument on 26 July 1971. Its rooms, arranged around a central courtyard, hold the museum's painting and sculpture collections alongside objects linked to Bernardo O'Higgins.

The house was built in the 1790s and belonged to Juan Francisco Prieto; in 1832 his widow pledged it to Domingo Opazo Artigas, and four years later the Opazo Vargas family held full control. In 1923 it passed to Andrés Mazorreaga Garrastazu, and laws 8.167 (1945) and 13.963 (1960) enabled the state to buy it for the Museo O'Higginiano y de Bellas Artes de Talca. It was declared a national monument on 26 July 1971.

The house takes its popular name, Casa de la Independencia, from a legend: that Bernardo O'Higgins spent part of his childhood here and signed Chile's act of independence in this building. Recent research questions both claims, noting he lived near Talca but that no evidence ties him to this house, and that the signing took place in a barracks elsewhere. The building has housed the Museo O'Higginiano y de Bellas Artes de Talca since the state acquired it under laws 8.167 (1945) and 13.963 (1960).

The museum occupies the colonial house at the corner of 1 Norte and 2 Oriente, in Talca's historic grid, a short walk from the central plaza. The building was declared a national monument on 26 July 1971, so its rooms and courtyard are visited as a heritage interior rather than a modern gallery.

The museum holds one of Chile's most complete collections of national paintings and works from the 19th and 20th centuries, including pieces by artists like Pablo Burchard and Rafael Correa. This gathering spans the evolution of Chilean art across two centuries.