Louvre

Musée de Louvre

The Louvre Museum
Established	10 August 1793; 231 years ago (1793-08-10)
Location	Musée du Louvre, 75001, Paris, France
Type	Art museum and historic site
Collection size	615,797 in 2019[1] (35,000 on display)[2]
Visitors	8.9 million (2023)[3] Ranked 1st nationally Ranked 1st globally
Director	Laurence des Cars
Curator	Marie-Laure de Rochebrune
Public transit access	Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre Louvre–Rivoli
Website	louvre.fr

The Louvre (English: /ˈluːv(rə)/ LOOV(-rə)),^[4] or the Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre [myze dy luvʁ] ^ⓘ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement (district or ward) and home to some of the most canonical works of Western art, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the Medieval Louvre fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to urban expansion, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function, and in 1546 Francis I converted it into the primary residence of the French kings.^[5]

The building was redesigned and 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 ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.^[6] 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.^[7] 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 royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed from 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon, after the Napoleonic looting of art in Europe, Egypt and Syria, and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon's abdication, many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners.^{[citation needed]} 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 bequests since the Third Republic. 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.

The Musée du Louvre contains approximately 500,000 objects^[8] and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 m² (652,000 sq ft) dedicated to the permanent collection.^[2] The Louvre exhibits sculptures, objets d'art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. At any given point in time, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are being exhibited over an area of 72,735 m² (782,910 sq ft), making it the largest museum in the world. It received 8.9 million visitors in 2023, 14 percent more than in 2022, though below the 10.1 million visitors it received in 2018. The Louvre is the most-visited museum in the world, ahead of the Vatican Museums.^[9][10]