The Augustins museum is one of the rare French museums to possess such a rich collection of sculpture. These collections represent statuary art from the south-west of France dating from the beginning of the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th Century - practically without interruption. The jewel of this collection is, without a doubt, our medieval art, renowned world wide for its Romanesque capitals from the region's main religious sites. In number, the Gothic art collection is just as rich. The sculptures from Rieux and a few other remarkable examples embody statuary art that had freed itself from the shackles of Romanesque formalism at the dawn of the 14th century and had become more expressive and organic. The natural evolution of this art was to reach its efflorescence in the autumn of the Middle Ages. The municipal collections are equally as rich in works from later periods. Toulouse maintained and revitalised its sculptural tradition; the wealth of sculpture from the 17th and 18th centuries bear witness to this.