It was built sometime between 1597 and 1610 as a private mansion for Jean Curtius, industrialist and munitions supplier to the Spanish army. With its alternating layers of red brick and natural stone and its cross-mullioned windows, it typifies the regional style known as Mosan Renaissance architecture.[1]
After a €50 million redevelopment, the museum reopened as the Grand Curtius (Le Grand Curtius) in March 2009, SND now houses the merged collections of four former museums: the Museum of Archeology, the Museum of Weaponry, the Museum of Decorative Arts, and the Arteum of Religious Art and Mosan art.[2] Its highlights include treasures of Mosan art such as a 12th-century gilded reliquary triptych, formerly in the church of Sainte-Croix;the Evangelarium of Notger; sculptures by Jean Del Cour; and a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted by Ingres in 1804: Bonaparte, First Consul.
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