Great Gallery: Louvre

Some interesting facts on one of the most famous museums in the world.

The Louvre was originally a fortress built by King Philip II. He wanted a 98 feet tower, a moat and an arsenal built against the Seine river as a protection from the North. It was also used a wolf hunting den and later as a palace. When Louvre opened its doors as a museum, in 1793, it held 500 paintings confiscated from French royals and nobility.

There are over 400,000 pieces of art housed at the Louvre but only about 35,000 are on display. The rest of the art is in storage accessible only to the staff and researchers.

During Napoleon’s reign, he gave the building the name Musee Napoleon. After his downfall in 1814, the museum was renamed the Louvre. He was one of the most notorious art looters in the history and used the stolen art as bargaining chips in treaties.

The French have held the ‘Mona Lisa’ since soon after its completion in 1517. It was after the French revolution that the ‘Mona Lisa’ was displayed in the Louvre. Prior to that it was housed in the Palace of Fontainebleau and the Palace of Versailles. Napoleon even had the painting displayed in this bedroom for a period of time.

The famous Dendera Zodiac that is on display, is the only complete map of an ancient sky created before the modern astronomy. It was one part of the ceiling of the Hathor Temple of Osiris, Egypt. It was sawed out and bought to Paris in 1821. It is also the basis of some aspects of modern astronomy, such as eclipses which were predicted in the map.

Until 1971, no living artist’s work has been shown in the Louvre. But that changed, when a selection of Picasso’s pieces went on display to celebrate the artist’s 90th birthday. Ironically, Pablo Picasso was once accused of stealing the ‘Mona Lisa’. Talk about living history!!

It’s still home to one other institution: a school. That’s right you can get your art degree right from the source itself. Founded in 1882, the school is principally a training ground for future curators and excavators.

In 2012, a satellite museum of the Louvre was built in Lens- a Northern French city, primarily to ease the huge crowds in the Parisian museums. The collections at the Louvre-Lens, is just as varied, items dating back to antiquity and nearly every era since. There is also another Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi.

As early as 1939, France feared a German invasion and that the Germans would loot the Louvre, moved their collections to Chateau de Chambord & Chateau de Valencay. The heavy items that could not be transported were hidden in the basement. The items were returned to Louvre after the France was liberated. Over hundred thousand pieces of art were stolen or missing and only about half have been recovered since.

The glass pyramid was designed by architect LM Pei. The pyramid was designed in transparent glass to bring all the colors of the Paris sky into this museum. It is set on steel, which doesn’t reflect light very well and surrounded by waterfalls to complete the landscape design.

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