The Musée Rolin occupies a 15th-century mansion built for Nicolas Rolin, the Burgundian chancellor who also commissioned the famous Hôtel-Dieu at Beaune. The collection ranges from Gallo-Roman artefacts to medieval art and on to 15th-century Burgundian painting.
The star piece is Gislebertus's original Eve — the horizontal reclining nude removed from the cathedral's north portal in the 18th century, saved from destruction and eventually recognised as a masterpiece of Romanesque carving. The expression of complicit seduction on Eve's face, and the precise carving of the foliage she moves through, make this one of the most arresting pieces of 12th-century sculpture anywhere in Europe. The museum also holds the Virgin of Autun painted by the Maître de Moulins, and a strong collection of Roman bronzes, coins and decorative arts from the Augustodunum period.