 For a while, the palace also served as a madrasa.In 1915, during the French Protectorate over Morocco, the building was converted into a museum on the initiative of Prosper Ricard, director of the "Service des Arts Indigènes" under Lyautey.It became an ethnographic museum with a collection initially made up of donations from Prosper Ricard himself, Alfred Bel, and Jean Besancenot.