[13]:378[95], The La Caze Collection, a bequest to the Muse du Louvre in 1869 by Louis La Caze, was the largest contribution of a person in the history of the Louvre. And for the best experience, visit the Louvre for the late-night opening: arrive after 6 pm on Wednesdays or Fridays and enjoy the museum up until 9:45 pm. In January 2020, under the direction of Jean-Luc Martinez, the museum inaugurated a new contemporary art commission, L'Onde du Midi by Venezuelan kinetic artist Elias Crespin. [76] The Roman portraiture is representative of that genre; examples include the portraits of Agrippa and Annius Verus; among the bronzes is the Greek Apollo of Piombino. [17] After LouisXIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, construction works slowed to a halt. [135], The Louvre-Lens follows a May 2003 initiative by then culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon to promote cultural projects outside of Paris that would make the riches of major Parisian institutions available to a broader French public, including a satellite (antenne) of the Louvre. When Germany occupied the Sudetenland, many important artworks such as the Mona Lisa were temporarily moved to the Chteau de Chambord. When the d'Orsay train station was converted into the Muse d'Orsay in 1986, the collection was split, and pieces completed after the 1848 Revolution were moved to the new museum. What was the Louvre after is was a fortress but before it was a museum? The Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the 12th century. In the 16 th century, Francis I, known as the French Renaissance King, had major works carried out to turn it into a Renaissance palace. Martinez replaced Henri Loyrette in April 2013. At any given point in time, approximately 38,000objects from prehistory to the 21st century are being exhibited over an area of 72,735 square meters (782,910 square feet). At the time of initial opening in 1793, the French Republican calendar had imposed ten-days "weeks" (French: dcades), the first six days of which were reserved for visits by artists and foreigners and the last three for visits by the general public. It compelled Italian cities to contribute pieces of art and heritage to Napoleon's "parades of spoils" through Paris before being put into the Louvre Museum. It served as a royal palace for centuries, until the French Revolution in 1789. A 30-year agreement, signed in early 2007 by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, establishes that Abu Dhabi shall pay 832,000,000 (US$1.3billion) in exchange for the Louvre name use, managerial advice, art loans, and special exhibitions. On 6 June 2014, the Decorative Arts section on the first floor of the Cour Carre's northern wing opened after comprehensive refurbishment.[66]. Select sculptures such as Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo were sent to the Chteau de Valenay. The Restoration period also saw the opening in 1824 of the Galerie d'Angoulme, a section of largely French sculptures on the ground floor of the Northwestern side of the Cour Carre, many of whose artefacts came from the Palace of Versailles and from Alexandre Lenoir's Muse des Monuments Franais following its closure in 1816. [141], The Louvre is involved in controversies that surround cultural property seized under Napoleon I, as well as during World War II by the Nazis. In 1793, it was stormed by revolutionaries and became the first museum in France. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. The Grand Louvre project separated the department into two exhibition spaces; the French collection is displayed in the Richelieu Wing, and foreign works in the Denon Wing.[81]. What was the Louvre museum before it was torn down? The museum's entrance conditions have varied over time. Nicolas Poussin, the Le Nain brothers, Philippe de Champaigne, Le Brun, La Tour, Watteau, Fragonard, Ingres, Corot, and Delacroix are well represented.[92]. It was once a fortress and then a palace before it became a museum in 1684. [13]:397-401 The 18th and 19th centuries are represented by the French sculptors like Alfred Barye and mile Guillemin. Louis-Philippe did, however, sponsor the creation of the muse assyrien to host the monumental Assyrian sculpture works brought to Paris by Paul-mile Botta, in the ground-floor gallery north of the eastern entrance of the Cour Carre. The Louvre, like many other museums and galleries, felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural heritage. The Baroque collection includes Giambattista Pittoni's The Continence of Scipio, Susanna and the Elders, Bacchus and Ariadne, Mars and Venus, and others Caravaggio is represented by The Fortune Teller and Death of the Virgin. The revolutionaries turned it into a public museum, and it has remained one of the most famous museums in the world ever since. [113] In the Louvre, two departments were allocated to the antiquities of the Iranian civilization, and the managers of the two departments visited Tehran. In 1997, Prime Minister Alain Jupp initiated the Mattoli Commission, headed by Jean Mattoli, to investigate the matter and according to the government, the Louvre is in charge of 678pieces of artwork still unclaimed by their rightful owners. Many design proposals were offered for the Louvre's renovation into a museum, without a final decision being made on them. [119][120] The event included over a hundred items: paintings, drawings and notebooks. The Louvre's ancient art collections are to a significant extent the product of excavations, some of which the museum sponsored under various legal regimes over time, often as a companion to France's diplomacy and/or colonial enterprises. What Was The Louvre Before It Was A Museum. In 1793, during the French Revolution, the palace was looted and many of its paintings were taken away. In the 19thcentury, the Louvre acquired works including vases from the Durand collection, bronzes such as the Borghese Vase from the Bibliothque nationale. [citation needed], During the Bourbon Restoration (18141830), Louis XVIII and Charles X added to the collections. The 18th-century BC mural of the Investiture of Zimrilim and the 25th-century BC Statue of Ebih-Il found in the ancient city-state of Mari are also on display at the museum.[73]. Aside from the Mona . [129], In February 1926, the Muse de Cluny, whose creation dates back to the 19th century, was brought under the aegis of the Louvre's department of decorative arts (Objets d'Art). [8] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces. The mayor of Amiens, northern France, has asked Madonna to lend the city a 19th-century painting lost during World War I which it believes may be have been bought by the singer, to help its . On 23 May 1871, as the French Army advanced into Paris, a force of Communards led by Jules Bergeret[fr] set fire to the adjoining Tuileries Palace. On 19 November 1802, Napoleon appointed Dominique Vivant Denon, a scholar and polymath who had participated in the Egyptian campaign of 17981801, as the museum's first director, in preference to alternative contenders such as antiquarian Ennio Quirino Visconti, painter Jacques-Louis David, sculptor Antonio Canova and architects Lon Dufourny or Pierre Fontaine. It is an extremely important structure and one of the most-visited edifices in the country as it preserves a mind-boggling collection of artwork and artefacts from a period that ranges from ancient civilization to the middle of the 19th century. [152], In 2013, The Observer reported that conditions for the workers at the Louvre and New York University construction sites on Saadiyat amounted to "modern-day slavery". According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopdique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den (via Latin: lupus, lower Empire: lupara). By the 19th century, the Louvre had been transformed into a museum, open to the public. [146] During the late 1990s, the comparison of the American war archives, which had not been done before, with the French and German ones as well as two court cases which finally settled some of the heirs' rights (Gentili di Giuseppe and Rosenberg families) allowed more accurate investigations. [94] The High Renaissance collection includes Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Virgin and Child with St. Anne, St. John the Baptist, and Madonna of the Rocks. Since 1993, the museum's main entrance has been the underground space under the Louvre Pyramid, or Hall Napolon, which can be accessed from the Pyramid itself, from the underground Carrousel du Louvre, or (for authorized visitors) from the passage Richelieu connecting to the nearby rue de Rivoli. [102] He has more administrative independence for the museum and achieved 90percent of galleries to be open daily, as opposed to 80percent previously. [13]:451-454[83], The works are displayed on the Richelieu Wing's first floor and in the Apollo Gallery, named by the painter Charles Le Brun, who was commissioned by LouisXIV (the Sun King) to decorate the space in a solar theme. [97], The Money Changer and His Wife; by Quentin Massys; 1514; oil on panel; 70.5 67cm, Spring; by Giuseppe Arcimboldo; 1573; oil on canvas; 76 64cm, Susanna and the Elders; by Giambattista Pittoni; 1720; oil on panel; 37 46cm, The Continence of Scipio; by Giambattista Pittoni; 1733; oil on panel; 96 56cm, Diana after the Bath; by Franois Boucher; 1742; oil on canvas; 73 56cm, Oath of the Horatii; by Jacques-Louis David; 1784; oil on canvas; height: 330cm, width: 425cm, The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, The prints and drawings department encompasses works on paper. In 1198, King Philip II of France decided to convert the temple into an art museum, and he commissioned the construction of the famous Gallery of Apollo. The government pays for operating costs (salaries, safety, and maintenance), while the rest new wings, refurbishments, acquisitions is up to the museum to finance. ", "Le muse de Marine du Louvre: un muse des techniques? As the Muse de Marine was increasingly constrained to display its core naval-themed collections in the limited space it had in the second-floor attic of the northern half of the Cour Carre, many of its significant holdings of non-Western artefacts were transferred in 1905 to the Trocadro ethnography museum, the National Antiquities Museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the Chinese Museum in the Palace of Fontainebleau. [122][123], In 2021, a Renaissance era ceremonial helmet and breastplate stolen from the museum in 1983 were recovered. It initiated repair work, the completion of the Galerie d'Apollon and of the salle des sept-chemines, and the overhaul of the Salon Carr (former site of the iconic yearly Salon) and of the Grande Galerie. [78] These exhibits, of ceramics, glass, metalware, wood, ivory, carpet, textiles, and miniatures, include more than 5,000works and 1,000shards. Inaugurated by President Franois Hollande on 4 December 2012, the Louvre-Lens is run by the Hauts-de-France region under a contract (convention scientifique et culturelle) with the Louvre for art loans and brand use. [13]:76-77[71] Pieces from the ancient period include the Gebel el-Arak Knife from 3400BC, The Seated Scribe, and the Head of King Djedefre. Following the July Revolution, King Louis Philippe focused his interest on the repurposing of the Palace of Versailles into a Museum of French History conceived as a project of national reconciliation, and the Louvre was kept in comparative neglect. [13]:52-54 In the 1860s, Lefuel also led the creation of the pavillon des Sessions with a new Salle des Etats closer to Napoleon III's residence in the Tuileries Palace, with the effect of shortening the Grande Galerie by about a third of its previous length. Every year, the Louvre now raises as much as it gets from the state, about 122million. The fire burned for forty-eight hours, entirely destroying the interior of the Tuileries and spreading to the north west wing of the museum next to it. What Was The Louvre Before It Was A Museum. [13]:70-71 In 1883, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, which had been found in the Aegean Sea in 1863, was prominently displayed as the focal point of the Escalier Daru. [124][125], In May 2021, it was announced that Laurence des Cars has been picked by French president Emmanuel Macron as the next leader of the Louvre. [citation needed], During World War II, the Louvre conducted an elaborate plan of evacuation of its art collection. [81][13]:397-401 In 1986, all post-1850 works were relocated to the new Muse d'Orsay. [13]:66, The open spaces surrounding the pyramid were inaugurated on 15 October 1988, and its underground lobby was opened on 30 March 1989. The Luxembourg gallery included Andrea del Sarto's Charity and works by Raphael; Titian; Veronese; Rembrandt; Poussin or Van Dyck. In 2010, American painter Cy Twombly completed a new ceiling for the Salle des Bronzes (the former Salle La Caze), a counterpoint to that of Braque installed in 1953 in the adjacent Salle Henri II. The National Assembly opened the Louvre as a museum in August 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings. [33] At the end of Napoleon's First Italian Campaign in 1797, the Treaty of Campo Formio was signed with Count Philipp von Cobenzl of the Austrian Monarchy. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic. [19][20][21], Meanwhile, the collections of the Louvre originated in the acquisitions of paintings and other artworks by the monarchs of the House of France. [citation needed], In the late 1920s, Louvre Director Henri Verne devised a master plan for the rationalization of the museum's exhibitions, which was partly implemented in the following decade. Many of the king's paintings were placed in these rooms in 1673, when it became an art gallery, accessible to certain art lovers as a kind of museum. The museum can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but I suggest you strap on your finest walking shoes and spend at least a few hours exploring. [10]:42 Since its post-World War II reopening in 1946,[10]:43 the Louvre has been closed on Tuesdays, and habitually open to the public the rest of the week except for some holidays. The stele was discovered in fragments in 1868 . 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