The Musée d’Orsay (Paris) was a railway station built between 1898 and 1900.
After 1939 it was used for suburban services and part of it became a mailing centre during World War II.
It was then used as a set for several films, and a theatre for the Barrault Company .
Next, it was decided to turn the station into a museum and in 1981, the Italian architect, Gae Aulenti was chosen to design its interior.
The museum officially opened on December 1, 1986
The museum houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world (by painters such as Monet, Manet,. Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, etc). which had previously been held at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume.