1924 - Museum of Ancient Art

In 1924, the Museum of Ancient Art opened in the mansion. This creation follows the desire of the Archaeological Society of Bordeaux to have a historic building in the city center to exhibit ancient art collections. The latter are made up of revolutionary seizures, archaeological discoveries, donations but also purchases from the City.

At that time, the museum lived surprisingly and unusually close to police offices, a collector from Bordeaux, Daniel Astruc (1863–1950), in an apartment on the ground floor and the prison still in operation, at the back of the museum.

Until the closure of the museum in 1940, the collections were divided into five rooms furnished with antique woodwork brought back from Bordeaux mansions. The museum’s director, Paul Courteault (1867–1950), in collaboration with the city’s chief architect, Jacques d'Welles (1883–1970), drew inspiration from the museography of the Carnavalet museum, created in 1880, to imagine decorative ensembles, period rooms, evocative of the bourgeois and aristocratic interiors of Bordeaux in the 18th century.

It was not until 1955 that the museum, renamed the Museum of Decorative Arts, occupied the entire mansion. The prison remained in operation until 1964.