While Manon Six, who took over the management of the Le Mans museums in September, is working on the redevelopment project for the museum network, the municipal council voted on November 13 to sell the site of the former Queen Bérengère Museum to a private group which will turn it into a five-star hotel. Not without provoking a strong reaction.
The museum opened in 1925 in three listed houses in the heart of the town, dating from the 15th century. Its collections consisted of ethnological objects and works from Le Mans and the Maine region. Closed in 2022, decommissioned in June 2024, the site had been on sale since the start of the year, with conditions: a price of €785,000, a commitment to restoration and to leaving the ground floor accessible to the general public.
As soon as the probable choice of the buyer was announced, a petition was put online by heritage defenders who also alerted Sarthe deputies, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC), the Departmental Unit of Architecture and Heritage (UDAP) and the Heritage Foundation. The latter expressed her opposition to the hotel project, instead recommending the idea of a contemporary art center put forward by the Le Mans collector Patrice Peltier. The authors of the petition also proposed other destinations for the site: a Middle Ages interpretation center, a living history experimentation space, heritage mediation or a residence for art artisans. Several members of the municipal council voted against the project which was nevertheless adopted by 38 votes to 17.
The City is engaged in a restructuring plan for its museum network which has evolved over time. Originally, there were four museums including that of Queen Bérangère: the Tessé Museum, the Jean-Claude-Boulard Museum – Carré Plantagenêt and the Green Museum. The latter also closed its doors in 2024, even if this was not planned in the initial project. He owned the natural history collections. The objective is to better redefine the lines of each museum. The collections of Queen Bérangère went to the Tessé Museum and the Carré Plantagenêt. The latter will also house the collections of the Green Museum to develop a historical, archaeological, environmental and ethnological discourse on the Le Mans region. Work is planned on these museums to expand the exhibition space for one and redo the museography for the other. Meanwhile, a conservation center project was approved this year.
