Musée Paul-Dini, Modern art museum in Villefranche-sur-Saône, France.
Musée Paul-Dini is an art museum in Villefranche-sur-Saône occupying two separate buildings: the former grain hall called Grenette and the converted textile factory known as Cornil. Together these spaces display more than 1,400 artworks across painting, sculpture, photography, and drawing.
The museum was founded in 1863 under Mayor Jean-Baptiste Boiron and lawyer Loyson de Chastelus who shaped its early direction. A major transformation came in 2001 when substantial donations from Muguette and Paul Dini enlarged the collection and gave the museum its current name.
The museum's name honours Muguette and Paul Dini, collectors whose first donation on 15 August 1998, backed by mayor Jean-Jacques Pignard, turned the municipal art centre back into a museum. The hang follows painters of Lyon and Rhône-Alpes from 1865 onward, including Jean Puy, Albert André, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Jules Flandrin, and Auguste Morisot's 1911 triptych Ombre-Lumière-Ténèbres.
The museum sits about 20 minutes north of Lyon and is easily accessible from the city. It features an art library with more than 6,000 specialized books and offers guided tours on Sundays for those wanting deeper insight into the collection.
The artothèque was created in 1984, before the museum's 2001 reopening, and it still runs alongside the exhibitions. The museum's own history began in 1863 with Mayor Jean-Baptiste Boiron and lawyer Loyson de Chastelus, and its collection was dormant in the 1970s before the Dini donations revived it.
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