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The Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is the most visited and one of the oldest, largest and most famous art galleries and museums in the world. The Louvre has a long history of artistic and historic conservation, from the Capetian dynasty until today. The building was previously a royal palace, and is famous for holding several of the world's most prestigious works of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Madonna of the Rocks and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo. Located in the centre of the city of Paris, between the Rive Droite of the Seine and the rue de Rivoli in the Ier arrondissement, it is accessed by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Metro station. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point axe historique, but the palace is not aligned on this axis. With a record 8.3 million visitors received in 2006[1], the Louvre is widely seen as the most visited culture and art museum in the world. It's also the most visited monument in Paris. Image:Musée du Louvre - from Jardin des Tuileres, Paris, France (26 April 2006).JPG View of Musée du Louvre from Jardin des Tuileries[2]
Construction and architecture
During his reign (1589–1610), King Henry IV added the Grande Galerie. Henry IV, a promoter of the arts, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building's lower floors. This huge addition was built along the bank of the River Seine and at the time was the longest edifice of its kind in the world. Louis XIII (1610–1643) completed the Denon Wing, which had been started by Catherine Medici in 1560. Today it has been renovated, as a part of the Grand Louvre Renovation Programme. Image:Le Louvre - Aile Richelieu.jpg The Richelieu Wing of the Louvre at night The Richelieu Wing was also built by Louis XIII. It was part of the Ministry of Economy of France, which took up most of the north wing of the palace. The Ministry was moved and the wing was renovated and turned into magnificent galleries which were inaugurated in 1993, the 200th anniversary of parts of the building first being opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793 during the French Revolution. Napoleon I built the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumph Arch) in 1805 to commemorate his victories and the Jardin du Carrousel. In those times this garden was the entrance to the Palais des Tuileries. The Louvre was still being added to by Napoleon III. The new wing of 1852–1857, by architects Visconti and Hector Lefuel, represents the Second Empire's version of Neo-baroque, full of detail and laden with sculpture. Work continued until 1876. Image:Louve paris france 1908.jpg
Louvre PyramidImage:Insidelouvrepyramid.jpg View of the outside from inside the Louvre Pyramid The Louvre Pyramid was built on the axis of the French Revolution. The central courtyard, on the axis of the Champs-Élysées, is occupied by the Louvre Pyramid, built in 1989, and serves as the main entrance to the museum. The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass pyramid commissioned by then French president François Mitterrand, designed by Ieoh Ming Pei and was inaugurated in 1989. This was the first renovation of the Grand Louvre Project. The Carre Gallery, where the Mona Lisa was exhibited, was also renovated. The pyramid covers the Louvre entresol and forms part of the new entrance into the museum. Le Louvre-LensSince many of the works in the Louvre are in storage, it was decided that an extension to the Louvre was to be created to the north of Paris. The project should be completed by 2009; the building will be capable of receiving between 500 and 600 major works. This new building should receive about 500,000 visitors per year. There were six city candidates for this project: Amiens, Arras, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Lens, and Valenciennes. On November 29, 2004, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin chose Lens, Pas-de-Calais to be the site of the new Louvre building. Le Louvre-Lens was the name chosen for the museum. The new building, under the administration of the Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais will have semi-permanent exhibition space covering at least 5000 m². There will also be space set aside for temporary national and international exhibitions. The building will be a group of glass and aluminum buildings in the middle of a large garden. The estimated cost for this building is 117 million euro, or 158.7 million US dollars (as of January 2005). It was confirmed on September 26, 2005 with the Japanese office of architecture that SANAA, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, will be designing the building, with Imrey Culbert LP, a museum and exhibit design firm based in New York and Paris. AccessImage:Louvre.png Map of the Louvre The station is named after the nearby Palais Royal and the Louvre. Until the 1990s its name was Palais Royal; it was renamed when a new access was built from the station to the underground portions of the redeveloped Louvre museum. ManagementLong managed by the French state under the Réunion des Musées Nationaux the Louvre has recently acquired powers of self-management as an Etablissement Public Autonome (Government-Owned Corporation) in order to better manage its growth. CollectionsImage:Cupid and Psyche.jpg Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, sculpture by Canova. Works of artists like Fragonard, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Poussin, and David can also be seen. Among the well-known sculptures in the collection are the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo. The collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845–1934), given to the Louvre in 1935, fills an exhibition room. It contains more than 40,000 engravings, nearly 3,000 drawings and 500 illustrated books. Besides art, the Louvre has many other types of exhibits, including archeology, history, sculpture and architecture. It has a large furniture collection, whose most spectacular item used to be the Bureau du Roi of the 18th century, now returned to the Palace of Versailles. Since September 14, 2005, the Louvre museum has gradually forbidden the taking of photos of its artworks.[3] Signs prohibiting photography suggest the consultation of the images on the Louvre online catalogue instead. Notable antiquitiesOther famous antiquities in the Louvre include: Notable paintings13th to 15th century
16th century
17th centuryImage:Louvre ; École Francaise -XXIV.jpg Louis XIV
18th century
19th century
References in popular cultureThe Louvre is a central location in the 1979 serial City of Death in the science fiction television series Doctor Who. In this adventure, Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, attempts to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. The Louvre inspired a virtual setting of adventure in the video game Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, starring Lara Croft. FilmThe Louvre, its art, particularly the art in the basement — not on display, is the subject of a scene in Kate & Leopold where Leopold talks about having a private tour of the basement to see the "real treasures". The Louvre is destroyed (along with the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe) during a counter-terrorism mission in the 2004 satirical film Team America: World Police. The Da Vinci CodeSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The Louvre and many of its works of art are featured prominently in Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code and in the 2006 film adaptation. The Louvre is the main setting in the prologue and first few chapters of the book and parts of the movie. The museum is the homicide crime scene where curator Jacques Saunière is murdered by an Opus Dei member named Silas. The location is also the laying and burial ground of Mary Magdalene in the novel and film. Spoilers end here.
Film productionsThe Da Vinci Code was filmed entirely on location. Originally, director Ron Howard was unable to obtain permission to film in the Louvre, having previously been denied access to Westminster Abbey as well. However, French President Jacques Chirac invited Howard to lunch at his home, where he informed the director that he would obtain clearance and Howard could contact him personally if there were any further problems (TIME, April 2006). Abu Dhabi LouvreIn March 2007, the Louvre announced that a Louvre museum would be completed by 2012 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The thirty-year agreement, signed by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, will prompt the construction of a Louvre museum in downtown Abu Dhabi in exchange for $1.3 billion USD in UAE oil money. It has been noted that the museum will showcase work from multiple French museums, including the Louvre, the Georges Pompidou Center, the Musee d'Orsay and Versailles. However, Donnedieu de Vabres stated at the announcement that the Paris Louvre would not sell any of its 35,000-piece collection.[4] See also
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