Visiting Museums
As befits the most visited museum in the world, even the main entrance to the Louvre is a work of art. But don't linger for too long marveling at the glassy pyramid. Inside await the riches of world's most exquisite artistic legacy, from Egyptian mummies and Code of Hammurabi to Venus de Milo and Leonardo's Mona Lisa. The museum has absorbed the centuries of transformations in the French political and social sphere, as well as managed to show the beauty and vastness of human mind under one roof, making in accessible to the common eye, and thus becoming a potent symbol of French sensitivity and finesse.
Overview
The Musée du Louvre or officially Grand Louvre - in English the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre - is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited museum in the world and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris and located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are still visible. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces.
The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being confiscated church and royal property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After his defeat at Waterloo, many works seized by Napoleon's armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and gifts since the Third Republic, except during the two World Wars. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.
Address
99 rue de Rivoli, Paris, 75058, France
Tel
33 01 40 20 50 50
More Information
http://www.louvre.fr
