The Musée des Beaux Arts de Tours (Museum of Fine Arts) is located in the old bishop's palace of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the cathedral. Preserves one of the most important painting collections in France outside of Paris. Officially inaugurated in 1801, the museum within the rich collection of paintings includes numerous masterpieces by Italian, French and Flemish artists. In fact, works such as Mantegna's Oration in the Garden and Resurrection stand out, as well as works by other important artists of the Italian Renaissance and subsequent centuries, such as Antonio Vivarini, Giovanni di Paolo, Lippo d'Andrea, Lorenzo Veneziano and Mattia Preti. French painting is abundantly representative for the 17th and 18th centuries. There are artists such as Claude Vignon, Philippe de Champaigne, Eustache La Sueur, Pierre Patel and several others. Flemish painting includes, among others, works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Gerard ter Borch, Bartholomeus Van der Helst, David Teniers the Younger, Jan van Goyen. The 19th century is represented by numerous works, in particular by French artists, such as Ingres, Delacroix, Degas and Monet.

In the courtyard of the museum is a grandiose cedar of Lebanon and a curious stuffed elephant, which died during a parade of the Barnum and Bailey circus in the streets of Tours on 10 June 1902.