Louvre

The Louvre is located in Paris, France and is one of the most famous art museums in the world. The leader of Sevarius's Mercenaries boasted that, for the right price, they could steal the Venus de Milo from the museum. ("Double Jeopardy")

Real World Background

The Louvre Museum (Musée de Louvre) was not originally a museum. The original structure was a castle that served to reinforce the battlements that the French King, Philip II, built around Paris. Construction began after 1190 through 1200, when a keep was added. Situated on the Rive Droite (Right Bank) of the Seine, a moat was filled with water from the river and the fortress was protected by drawbridges.

During the reign of Charles V in the 14th Century, the castle was renovated into a royal residence. Upper floors were added as well as gardens. During the Hundred Years' War, Henry V commanded the English into Paris and occupied the Louvre Palace from 1420 to 1436.

King Francis I of France began to renovate the castle once more, demolishing the dungeon in 1528. Under the King's direction, French architect Pierre Lescot was brought in to rebuild the castle into a modern palace reflecting the aesthetics of the Renaissance. Work continued well after Francis I's death in 1547; in fact, the overhaul of the palace would continue into various stages and phases well into the 17th Century. Remnants of the original medieval fortress are still visible to the public in the basement of the modern museum.

Following the royal court moving in 1682 to the Palace of Versailles, in the century that followed, there were public calls for the creation of a public gallery at the Louvre. King Louis XV would displays various pieces of artwork from the royal collection. During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection became national property. Paintings and sculptures would be brought from the Palace of Versailles. In 1791, the Louvre Palace was designated as a space for "la réunion de tous les monuments des sciences et des arts" ("the assembly of all monuments of science and the arts").

The museum's collection would expand in the 18th Century, during both Napoleon's reign as emperor (much of it plunder throughout Europe, Egypt, and Syria) and during the restoration of the monarchy with Louis XVIII and Charles X. It was during Louis XVIII's reign that the Louvre added the Venus de Milo to their collection.

In 1911, Italian patriot Vincenzo Peruggia stole Leonardo de Vinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre, and evaded capture for two years. It was ultimately returned to the Louvre in 1914.

During World War II, curators scrambled to evacuate the Louvre collection from Paris. As the Germans continued to advance across Europe, priceless paintings and sculptures that could be moved were transferred to both the Château de Chambord and the Château de Valençay. Artwork would be restored in 1945, after France was liberated.

In October 1972, it hosted the Rosetta Stone (on loan from the British Museum) to mark the 150th anniversary of Jean-François Champollion's translation of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The Louvre Pyramid was completed in 1989, and is comprised of 603 rhombus-shaped and seventy triangular glass panes. Contrary to urban myth, it is not composed of 666 panels.

In 2020, for the 500th anniversary of Leonardo de Vinci's death, the Louvre held the largest exhibit of his work, which included eleven of his known paintings, as well as hundreds of drawings and notebooks.

See Also

• Louvre at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia