Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson, Fine arts museum in San Juan, Argentina

The Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson occupies the remodeled former Provincial Casino building, expanded with new wings, in San Juan. Its four numbered rooms hold 945 pieces: 450 paintings, 90 sculptures, 302 prints, 54 drawings and 15 photographs, with 250 works on permanent display. Rooms 1 and 2, over seven meters high, host traveling shows.

The collection began around 1850 through Benjamín Franklin Rawson, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and his sister Procesa. The province created a fine arts commission in 1934 and opened the museum on 26 November 1936 on Rivadavia street. The 1944 earthquake destroyed that seat and shelved a planned building in Parque de Mayo; after rented premises, the Sarmiento school, the Juan Victoria auditorium basement and the Escuela Normal San Martín, the museum moved in 2011 into the former Provincial Casino, inaugurated by Cristina Fernández and opened to the public by governor José Luis Gioja on 13 October.

The museum bears the name of Franklin Rawson, a San Juan painter regarded as a precursor of Argentine painting. Room 3 holds the "Arte Visual Sanjuanino" collection, with works by local artists such as Procesa Sarmiento, Eugenia Belín and Bibí Zogbé. The collection began around 1850 through Rawson, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and his sister Procesa.

The museum occupies the former Provincial Casino building, remodeled and extended by architects Carlos Gómez Centurión, Laura Elizondo and Gustavo Suárez. Inside are an auditorium for 170 spectators, a library, workshop rooms, a café and a shop. The temporary exhibition rooms reach over seven metres in height.

The new building, opened in 2011, reuses the former Provincial Casino and was designed by Carlos Gómez Centurión, Laura Elizondo and Gustavo Suárez. Restorer Domingo Tellechea spent nine months treating more than 45 works before the reopening. The collection holds 945 pieces, including 450 paintings, 90 sculptures and 302 prints, with 250 works on permanent display.