Editing Louvre (section)

== History ==
=== Before the museum ===
[[File:Donjon chateau louvre.JPG|thumb|Below-ground portions of the medieval Louvre are still visible.<ref name=Mignot>{{cite book| author=Claude Mignot |title=The Pocket Louvre: A Visitor's Guide to 500 Works |publisher=Abbeville Press |location=New York |isbn=0-7892-0578-5 |year=1999 |oclc=40762767 |url=https://archive.org/details/pocketlouvrevisi00mign}}</ref>{{rp|32}}]]
{{Main|Louvre Palace}}
The [[Louvre Palace]], which houses the museum, was begun by [[Philip II of France|King Philip II]] in the late 12th century to protect the city from the attack from the West, as the [[Kingdom of England]] still held [[Duchy of Normandy|Normandy]] at the time. Remnants of the [[Medieval Louvre]] are still visible in the crypt.{{R|Mignot|page=32}} Whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, and it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower.<ref name="Edwards" />

The origins of the name "Louvre" are somewhat disputed. According to the authoritative ''[[Grand Larousse encyclopédique]]'', the name derives from an association with a [[wolf hunting]] den (via Latin: ''lupus'', lower Empire: ''lupara'').<ref name="Edwards">Edwards,&nbsp;pp.&nbsp;193–94</ref><ref>In Larousse ''Nouveau Dictionnaire étymologique et historique'', Librairie Larousse, Paris, 1971, p. 430: ***'''loup''' 1080, Roland (''leu'', forme conservée dans ''à la queue leu leu'', ''Saint Leu'', etc.); du lat. lupus; loup est refait sur le fém. louve, où le *v* a empêché le passage du *ou* à *eu* (cf. Louvre, du lat. pop. lupara)*** the etymology of the word ''louvre'' is from ''lupara'', feminine (pop. Latin) form of ''lupus''.</ref> In the 7th century, [[Burgundofara]] (also known as Saint Fare), abbess in Meaux, is said to have given part of her "Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris" to a monastery,<ref>In Lebeuf (Abbé), Fernand Bournon, ''Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris par l'abbé Lebeuf'', Vol. 2, Paris: Féchoz et Letouzey, 1883, p. 296: "Louvre".</ref> even though it is doubtful that this land corresponded exactly to the present site of the Louvre.

The Louvre Palace has been subject to numerous renovations since its construction. In the 14th&nbsp;century, [[Charles V of France|Charles&nbsp;V]] converted the building from its military role into a residence. In 1546, [[Francis I of France|Francis&nbsp;I]] started its rebuilding in [[French Renaissance architecture|French Renaissance]] style.<ref name="Edwards198">Edwards,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;198</ref> After Louis&nbsp;XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, construction works slowed to a halt. The royal move away from Paris resulted in the Louvre being used as a residence for artists, under Royal patronage.<ref name="Edwards198" />{{R|Mignot|page=42}}<ref>Nore,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;274</ref> For example, four generations of craftsmen-artists from the Boulle family were granted Royal patronage and resided in the Louvre.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jean Philippe Boulle, Son of André-Charles Boulle |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O185910/design-for-a-boulle-jean-philippe/ |date=21 July 2019 |publisher=V&A}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Death of André-Charles Boulle |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63480935/f148.image.r=Boulle?rk=128756;0 |date=March 1732 |publisher=Mercure de France}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Masters of marquetry in the 17th century: Boulle |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/getty-museum/getty-decorative-arts/a/masters-of-marquetry-in-the-17th-century-boulle |publisher=Khanacademy |access-date=30 November 2017 |archive-date=8 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308163544/https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/getty-museum/getty-decorative-arts/a/masters-of-marquetry-in-the-17th-century-boulle |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Meanwhile, the collections of the Louvre originated in the acquisitions of paintings and other artworks by the monarchs of the [[House of France]]. At the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]], Francis collected art that would later be part of the Louvre's art collections, including [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Mona Lisa]]''.<ref>{{cite news|author=Chaundy, Bob|title=Faces of the Week|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5392000.stm|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=29 September 2006|access-date=5 October 2007}}</ref>

The Cabinet du Roi consisted of seven rooms west of the Galerie d'Apollon on the upper floor of the remodeled Petite Galerie. Many of the king's paintings were placed in these rooms in 1673, when it became an art gallery, accessible to certain art lovers as a kind of museum. In 1681, after the court moved to Versailles, 26 of the paintings were transferred there, somewhat diminishing the collection, but it is mentioned in Paris guide books from 1684 on, and was shown to ambassadors from [[Siam]] in 1686.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Berger |date=1999 |title=Public Access to Art in Paris: A Documentary History from the Middle Ages to 1800 |location=University Park |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |pages=83–86}}</ref>

By the mid-18th&nbsp;century there were an increasing number of proposals to create a public gallery in the Louvre. Art critic [[Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne]] in 1747 published a call for a display of the royal collection. On 14 October 1750, [[Louis XV]] decided on a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the [[Luxembourg Palace]]. A hall was opened by [[Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem|Le Normant de Tournehem]] and the [[Abel François Poisson|Marquis de Marigny]] for public viewing of the "king's paintings" (''Tableaux du Roy'') on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Luxembourg gallery included [[Andrea del Sarto]]'s ''Charity'' and works by [[Raphael]]; [[Titian]]; [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]]; [[Rembrandt]]; [[Nicolas Poussin|Poussin]] or [[Anthony van Dyck|Van Dyck]]. It closed in 1780 as a result of the royal gift of the Luxembourg palace to the [[Louis XVIII of France|Count of Provence]] (the future king, Louis XVIII) by the king in 1778.<ref name="Nora 278" /> Under [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]], the idea of a royal museum in the Louvre came closer to fruition.<ref name="Carb 56">Carbonell, p.&nbsp;56</ref> The [[Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, comte d'Angiviller|comte d'Angiviller]] broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed to convert the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}} of the Louvre – which at that time contained the ''[[Musée des Plans-Reliefs|plans-reliefs]]'' or 3D models of key fortified sites in and around France – into the "French Museum". Many design proposals were offered for the Louvre's renovation into a museum, without a final decision being made on them. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution.<ref name="Nora 278" />
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=== Revolutionary opening ===
The Louvre finally became a public museum during the French Revolution. In May 1791, the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]] declared that the Louvre would be "a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences and arts".<ref name=" Nora 278" /> On 10 August 1792, [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]] was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property. Because of fear of vandalism or theft, on 19 August, the National Assembly pronounced the museum's preparation urgent. In October, a committee to "preserve the national memory" began assembling the collection for display.<ref>Oliver,&nbsp;pp.&nbsp;21–22</ref>

[[File:Amor-Psyche-Canova-JBU02.JPG|thumb|right|[[Antonio Canova]]'s ''[[Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss]]'' was commissioned in 1787 and donated in 1824.<ref name="French">{{Cite web |title=French Sculpture 1800–1825, Canova |url=http://gallery.sjsu.edu/paris/the_academy/canova.htm |last1=Monaghan |first1=Sean M. |last2=Rodgers, Michael |year=2000 |website=19th Century Paris Project |publisher=School of Art and Design, San Jose State University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420173109/http://gallery.sjsu.edu/paris/the_academy/canova.htm |archive-date=20 April 2008 |access-date=24 April 2008 }}</ref>]]

The museum opened on 10 August 1793, the first anniversary of the monarchy's demise, as ''Muséum central des Arts de la République''. The public was given free accessibility on three days per week, which was "perceived as a major accomplishment and was generally appreciated".<ref>Oliver,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;35</ref> The collection showcased 537&nbsp;paintings and 184&nbsp;objects of art. Three-quarters were derived from the royal collections, the remainder from confiscated [[émigrés]] and [[Roman Catholic Church|Church]] property (''[[biens nationaux]]'').<ref name="Alex 24" />{{R|Mignot|page=68-69}} To expand and organize the collection, the Republic dedicated 100,000&nbsp;[[Livre tournois|livres]] per year.<ref name="Nora 278">Nora,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;278</ref> In 1794, France's revolutionary armies began bringing pieces from Northern Europe, augmented after the [[Treaty of Tolentino]] (1797) by works from the Vatican, such as the ''[[Laocoön and His Sons|Laocoön]]'' and ''[[Apollo Belvedere]]'', to establish the Louvre as a museum and as a "sign of popular sovereignty".<ref name="Alex 24" /><ref>McClellan,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;7</ref>

The early days were hectic. Privileged artists continued to live in residence, and the unlabeled paintings hung "frame to frame from floor to ceiling".<ref name="Alex 24">Alderson,&nbsp; pp. 24,&nbsp;25</ref> The structure itself closed in May 1796 due to structural deficiencies. It reopened on [[Bastille Day|14 July]] 1801, arranged chronologically and with new lighting and columns.<ref name="Alex 24" /> On 15 August 1797, the [[Galerie d'Apollon]] was opened with an exhibition of drawings. Meanwhile, the Louvre's Gallery of Antiquity sculpture (''musée des Antiques''), with artefacts brought from Florence and the Vatican, had opened in November 1800 in [[Anne of Austria]]'s former summer apartment, located on the ground floor just below the Galerie d'Apollon.

=== {{anchor|Musée Napoléon|Napoleon I}}Napoleonic era ===
{{see also|Napoleonic looting of art}}

On 19 November 1802, Napoleon appointed [[Vivant Denon]], a scholar and polymath who had participated in the [[French Invasion of Egypt (1798)|Egyptian campaign]] of 1798–1801, as the museum's first director, in preference to alternative contenders such as antiquarian [[Ennio Quirino Visconti]], painter [[Jacques-Louis David]], sculptor [[Antonio Canova]] and architects [[Léon Dufourny]] or [[Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine|Pierre Fontaine]].<ref>{{citation|journal=Grande Galerie – le Journal du Louvre |volume=55 |date=Summer 2021 |author=Vivien Richard |title=Quand Bonaparte nomme Denon |page=74}}</ref> On Denon's suggestion in July 1803, the museum itself was renamed ''Musée Napoléon''.<ref name=GBB>{{cite book|author=Geneviève Bresc |title=Mémoires du Louvre |publisher=Gallimard |date=1989 |location=Paris}}</ref>{{rp|79}}

The collection grew through successful military campaigns.{{R|Mignot|page=52}} Acquisitions were made of Spanish, Austrian, Dutch, and Italian works, either as the result of [[war looting]] or formalized by treaties such as the [[Treaty of Tolentino]].<ref name="Alderson 25" /> At the end of Napoleon's First Italian Campaign in 1797, the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]] was signed with [[Count Philipp von Cobenzl]] of the [[Austrian Monarchy]]. This treaty marked the completion of Napoleon's conquest of Italy and the end of the first phase of the [[French Revolutionary Wars]]. It compelled Italian cities to contribute pieces of art and heritage to Napoleon's "parades of spoils" through Paris before being put into the Louvre Museum.<ref name="Plant, p. 36">Plant, p. 36</ref> The [[Horses of Saint Mark]], which had adorned the basilica of San Marco in Venice after the sack of [[Constantinople]] in 1204, were brought to Paris where they were placed atop Napoleon's [[Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel]] in 1797.<ref name="Plant, p. 36" /> Under the Treaty of Tolentino, the two statues of the Nile and Tiber were taken to Paris from the Vatican in 1797, and were both kept in the Louvre until 1815. (The Nile was later returned to Rome,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Swetnam-Burland |first=Molly |date=2009 |title=Egypt Embodied: The Vatican Nile |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=113 |issue=3 |page=440 |doi=10.3764/aja.113.3.439 |jstor=20627596|s2cid=191377908 }}</ref> whereas the Tiber has remained in the Louvre to this day.) The despoilment of Italian churches and palaces outraged the Italians and their artistic and cultural sensibilities.<ref>Popkin, p. 88</ref>

After the French defeat at [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]], the looted works' former owners sought their return. The Louvre's administrator, Denon, was loath to comply in absence of a treaty of restitution. In response, foreign states sent emissaries to London to seek help, and many pieces were returned, though far from all.<ref name="Alderson 25">Alderson,&nbsp;p. 25</ref>{{R|Mignot|page=69}}<ref>For example, [[Andrea Mantegna|Mantegna]]'s ''Calvary'', [[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]]'s ''The Wedding at Cana|The Marriage of Cana'', and Rogier van der Weyden's ''Annunciation'' were not returned.</ref> In 1815 [[Louis XVIII]] finally concluded agreements with the [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] government<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Paolo Veronese |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=59chAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA741 |magazine=The Gentleman's Magazine |year = 1867|publisher=A. Dodd and A. Smith |issue=December 1867 |page=741}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Johns |first=Christopher M. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mYponZ9FFGIC&pg=PA190 |title=Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe |publisher=University of California Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0520212015 |page=190}}</ref> for the keeping of works such as Veronese's ''[[The Wedding at Cana (Veronese)|Wedding at Cana]]'' which was exchanged for a large [[Charles Le Brun|Le Brun]] or the repurchase of the [[Alessandro Albani|Albani]] collection.
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=== From 1815 to 1852 ===
[[File:MG-Paris-Aphrodite of Milos edited.jpg|right|thumb|upright|The ''[[Venus de Milo]]'' was added to the Louvre's collection during the reign of [[Louis XVIII]].]]
For most of the 19th century, from [[Napoleon]]'s time to the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], the Louvre and other national museums were managed under the monarch's [[civil list]] and thus depended much on the ruler's personal involvement. Whereas the most iconic collection remained that of paintings in the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}}, a number of other initiatives mushroomed in the vast building, named as if they were separate museums even though they were generally managed under the same administrative umbrella. Correspondingly, the museum complex was often referred to in the plural ("{{lang|fr|les musées du Louvre}}") rather than singular.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marcy |first1=Pierre |title=Guide populaire dans les Musées du Louvre |date=1867 |publisher=Librairie du Petit Journal |location=Paris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGcEAAAAYAAJ |access-date=14 June 2024}}</ref>

During the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]] (1814–1830), [[Louis XVIII]] and [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] added to the collections. The Greek and Roman sculpture gallery on the ground floor of the southwestern side of the [[Cour Carrée]] was completed on designs by [[Percier and Fontaine]]. In 1819 an exhibition of manufactured products was opened in the first floor of the Cour Carrée's southern wing and would stay there until the mid-1820s.{{R|GBB|page=87}} Charles X in 1826 created the {{lang|fr|Musée Égyptien}} and in 1827 included it in his broader {{lang|fr|Musée Charles X}}, a new section of the museum complex located in a suite of lavishly decorated rooms on the first floor of the South Wing of the Cour Carrée. The Egyptian collection, initially curated by [[Jean-François Champollion]], formed the basis for what is now the Louvre's [[Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre|Department of Egyptian Antiquities]]. It was formed from the purchased collections of [[Edmé-Antoine Durand]], [[Henry Salt (Egyptologist)|Henry Salt]] and the second collection of [[Bernardino Drovetti]] (the first one having been purchased by [[Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia]] to form the core of the present [[Museo Egizio]] in [[Turin]]). The Restoration period also saw the opening in 1824 of the {{lang|fr|Galerie d'Angoulême}}, a section of largely French sculptures on the ground floor of the Northwestern side of the Cour Carrée, many of whose artefacts came from the [[Palace of Versailles]] and from Alexandre Lenoir's [[Musée des Monuments français (1795-1816)|Musée des Monuments Français]] following its closure in 1816. Meanwhile, the [[French Navy]] created an exhibition of ship models in the Louvre in December 1827, initially named {{lang|fr|musée dauphin}} in honor of [[Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême|Dauphin Louis Antoine]],<ref>{{cite conference|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/acths_1764-7355_2008_act_130_4_1468 |book-title=Le rôle des voyages dans la constitution des collections ethnographiques, historiques et scientifiques. Actes du 130e Congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, « Voyages et voyageurs », La Rochelle, 2005 |title=Les collections chinoises et japonaises du musée de la Marine avant 1878 : un cas marginal pour l'ethnographie ? |author=Geneviève Lacambre |location=Paris |publisher=Editions du CTHS |date=2008 |pages=94–109 }}</ref> building on an 18th-century initiative of [[Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau]]. This collection, renamed {{lang|fr|musée naval}} in 1833 and later to develop into the [[Musée national de la Marine]], was initially located on the first floor of the Cour Carrée's North Wing, and in 1838 moved up one level to the 2nd-floor [[attic]], where it remained for more than a century.<ref name=Marine>{{citation|journal=Artefact |title=Le musée de Marine du Louvre : un musée des techniques ? |author=Géraldine Barron |date=April 2021|volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=143–162 |doi=10.4000/artefact.695 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Rooms of the Musée Charles X">
File:Dernière salle des antiquités égyptiennes (Louvre).jpg|First room
File:Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre - Room 27 and others.jpg|Room&nbsp;27
File:Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre - Room 29 D201903.jpg|Room&nbsp;29
File:Salles des colonnes du Louvre, vue vers l'ouest.jpg|Salle des Colonnes
File:Greek antiquities in the Louvre - Room 35 D201903.jpg|Room&nbsp;35
File:Room 36 of the Greek antiquities in the Louvre.jpg|Room&nbsp;36
File:Greek antiquities in the Louvre - Room 38 D201903.jpg|Room&nbsp;38
</gallery>

{{multiple image|align=right |total_width=350|image1=Salon Carré Ceiling.jpg |image2=Palais du Louvre - Salle des Sept-Cheminées -1.JPG |footer=Ceiling decorations designed by [[Félix Duban]] in the [[Salon Carré]] (left) and {{lang|fr|Salle des Sept-Cheminées}} (right), late 1840s}}
[[File:Giuseppe Castiglione - View of the Grand Salon Carré in the Louvre - WGA4552.jpg|thumb|300px|The display in the [[Salon Carré]], painted by [[Giuseppe Castiglione (1829–1908)|Giuseppe Castiglione]] in 1861 following its repurposing of the late 1840s

[[Paolo Veronese|Veronese]]'s ''[[The Wedding at Cana (Veronese)|Wedding at Cana]]'' is visible on the left, and his ''Supper in the House of Simon'' (now at the [[Palace of Versailles]]) is on the right.]]

Following the [[July Revolution]], [[Louis Philippe I|King Louis Philippe]] focused his interest on the repurposing of the [[Palace of Versailles]] into a [[Musée de l'Histoire de France (Versailles)|Museum of French History]] conceived as a project of national reconciliation, and the Louvre was kept in comparative neglect. Louis-Philippe did, however, sponsor the creation of the {{lang|fr|musée assyrien}} to host the monumental [[Assyrian sculpture]] works brought to Paris by [[Paul-Émile Botta]], in the ground-floor gallery north of the eastern entrance of the Cour Carrée. The Assyrian Museum opened on 1 May 1847.<ref>{{cite web|website=Grands sites archéologiques: Khorsabad |title=The opening of the Assyrian museum at the Louvre |url=https://archeologie.culture.fr/khorsabad/en/opening-assyrian-museum-louvre}}</ref> Separately, Louis-Philippe had his [[Spanish gallery]] displayed in the Louvre from 7 January 1838, in five rooms on the first floor of the Cour Carrée's East ([[Louvre Colonnade|Colonnade]]) Wing,<ref>{{citation|title=La galerie espagnole de Louis-Philippe au Louvre: 1838–1848 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3371348d.texteImage |author1=Jeannine Baticle |author2=Cristina Marinas |publisher=Réunion des musées nationaux |location=Paris |date=1981}}</ref> but the collection remained his personal property. As a consequence, the works were removed after Louis-Philippe was deposed in 1848, and were eventually auctioned away in 1853.

The short-lived [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] had more ambitions for the Louvre. It initiated repair work, the completion of the [[Galerie d'Apollon]] and of the {{lang|fr|salle des sept-cheminées}}, and the overhaul of the {{lang|fr|[[Salon Carré]]}} (former site of the iconic yearly [[Salon (Paris)|Salon]]) and of the Grande Galerie.{{R|Mignot|page=52}} In 1848, the Naval Museum in the Cour Carrée's attic was brought under the common Louvre Museum management,<ref name=Marine/> a change which was again reversed in 1920. In 1850 under the leadership of curator [[Adrien Prévost de Longpérier|Adrien de Longpérier]], the [[musée mexicain]] opened within the Louvre as the first European museum dedicated to [[pre-Columbian art]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 56 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications/the-metropolitan-museum-journal-volume-56-2021 |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref>

=== Second Empire ===
{{Main|Napoleon III's Louvre expansion}}

The rule of [[Napoleon III]] was transformational for the Louvre, both the building and the museum. In 1852, he created the [[Musée des Souverains]] in the [[Louvre Colonnade|Colonnade Wing]], an ideological project aimed at buttressing his personal legitimacy. In 1861, he bought 11,835&nbsp;artworks including 641 paintings, Greek gold and other antiquities of the [[Campana collection]]. For its display, he created another new section within the Louvre named {{lang|fr|Musée Napoléon III}}, occupying a number of rooms in various parts of the building. Between 1852 and 1870, the museum added 20,000&nbsp;new artefacts to its collections.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the Louvre? {{!}} Hobble Creek |url=https://hobblecreek.us/blog/entry/what-is-the-louvre |access-date=9 December 2022 |website=hobblecreek.us}}</ref>

The main change of that period was to the building itself. In the 1850s architects [[Louis Visconti]] and [[Hector Lefuel]] created massive new spaces around what is now called the [[Cour Napoléon]], some of which (in the South Wing, now Aile Denon) went to the museum.{{R|Mignot|page=52-54}} In the 1860s, Lefuel also led the creation of the {{lang|fr|pavillon des Sessions}} with a new {{lang|fr|Salle des Etats}} closer to Napoleon III's residence in the [[Tuileries Palace]], with the effect of shortening the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}} by about a third of its previous length. A smaller but significant Second Empire project was the decoration of the {{lang|fr|salle des Empereurs}} below the [[Salon carré]].{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} {{clear}}

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Musée Napoléon III.jpg|Entrance to a section of the ''Musée Napoléon&nbsp;III'' from the ''salle des séances'', then a double-height space
File:Galerie Daru - Musée du Louvre.jpg|''Galerie Daru'', part of the New Louvre building program under Napoleon&nbsp;III
File:Paris - Musée du Louvre (30612872064).jpg|''Salle Daru'' above the ''galerie Daru'', also created under Napoleon&nbsp;III
File:Escalier Mollien in 2010 (1).jpg|''Escalier Mollien'' in the New Louvre
File:P1080712 Louvre salle romaine rwk.JPG|''Salle des Empereurs''
</gallery>
{{clear}}

=== From 1870 to 1981 ===
[[File:Plaques honoring the defenders of the Louvre in May 1871.jpg|thumb|Memorial plaques honoring the Louvre's defenders in May 1871]]

The Louvre narrowly escaped serious damage during the suppression of the [[Paris Commune]]. On 23 May 1871, as the French Army advanced into Paris, a force of ''Communards'' led by {{ill|Jules Bergeret|fr}} set fire to the adjoining [[Tuileries Palace]]. The fire burned for forty-eight hours, entirely destroying the interior of the Tuileries and spreading to the north west wing of the museum next to it. The emperor's Louvre library (''Bibliothèque du Louvre'') and some of the adjoining halls, in what is now the Richelieu Wing, were separately destroyed. But the museum was saved by the efforts of Paris firemen and museum employees led by curator [[Henry Barbet de Jouy]].<ref>{{cite book|author=René Heron de Villefosse |title=Histoire de Paris |publisher=Bernard Grasset |date=1959}}</ref>

Following the end of the monarchy, several spaces in the Louvre's South Wing went to the museum. The Salle du Manège was transferred to the museum in 1879, and in 1928 became its main entrance lobby.<ref>{{cite web|website=Le Point |date=16 May 2015 |author1=Frédéric Lewino |author2=Anne-Sophie Jahn |title=Visite interdite du Louvre #4 : la magnifique rampe en fer à cheval de la cour des Écuries |url=https://www.lepoint.fr/culture/visite-interdite-du-louvre-4-la-magnifique-rampe-en-fer-a-cheval-de-la-cour-des-ecuries-16-05-2015-1928803_3.php}}</ref> The large Salle des Etats that had been created by Lefuel between the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}} and Pavillon Denon was redecorated in 1886 by {{ill|Edmond Guillaume|fr}}, Lefuel's successor as architect of the Louvre, and opened as a spacious exhibition room.<ref>{{cite web|website=INHA Institut national d'histoire de l'art |title=Guillaume, Edmond (24 juin 1826, Valenciennes – 20 juillet 1894, Paris) |url=https://www.inha.fr/fr/ressources/publications/publications-numeriques/dictionnaire-critique-des-historiens-de-l-art/guillaume-edmond.html |date=9 February 2010 |author=Olivia Tolede}}</ref><ref name=Bresc>{{cite book |author=Geneviève Bresc-Bautier |title=The Louvre, a Tale of a Palace |date=2008 |publisher=Louvre éditions |location=Paris |url=http://editions.louvre.fr/en/titles/visit-the-louvre/history-of-the-palace/the-louvre-a-tale-of-a-palace.html |access-date=1 May 2021 |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306033021/http://editions.louvre.fr/en/titles/visit-the-louvre/history-of-the-palace/the-louvre-a-tale-of-a-palace.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Edomond Guillaume also decorated the first-floor room at the northwest corner of the [[Cour Carrée]], on the ceiling of which he placed in 1890 a monumental painting by [[Carolus-Duran]], ''The Triumph of [[Marie de' Medici]]'' originally created in 1879 for the [[Luxembourg Palace]].<ref name=Bresc/>

[[File:Daru staircase Louvre 2007 05 13.jpg|thumb|The Louvre's monumental [[Escalier Daru]], topped by the ''[[Winged Victory of Samothrace]]'', took its current appearance in the early 1930s.]]

Meanwhile, during the [[Third French Republic|Third Republic]] (1870–1940) the Louvre acquired new artefacts mainly via donations, gifts, and sharing arrangements on excavations abroad. The 583-item {{lang|fr|Collection La Caze}}, donated in 1869 by [[Louis La Caze]], included works by [[Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin|Chardin]]; [[Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard|Fragonard]], [[Rembrandt]] and [[Jean-Antoine Watteau|Watteau]].{{R|Mignot|page=70-71}} In 1883, the ''[[Winged Victory of Samothrace]]'', which had been found in the Aegean Sea in 1863, was prominently displayed as the focal point of the [[Escalier Daru]].{{R|Mignot|page=70-71}} Major artifacts excavated at [[Susa]] in Iran, including the massive ''Apadana capital'' and glazed brick decoration from the [[Palace of Darius in Susa|Palace of Darius]] there, accrued to the Oriental (Near Eastern) Antiquities Department in the 1880s. The [[Société des amis du Louvre]] was established in 1897 and donated prominent works, such as the ''[[Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon]]''. The expansion of the museum and its collections slowed after World War I, however, despite some prominent acquisitions such as [[Georges de La Tour]]'s ''Saint Thomas'' and [[Edmond James de Rothschild|Baron Edmond de Rothschild]]'s 1935 donation of 4,000&nbsp;prints, 3,000&nbsp;drawings, and 500&nbsp;illustrated books.

From the late 19th century, the Louvre gradually veered away from its mid-century ambition of universality to become a more focused museum of French, Western and Near Eastern art, covering a space ranging from [[Iran]] to the Atlantic. The collections of the Louvre's [[musée mexicain]] were transferred to the [[Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro]] in 1887. As the {{lang|fr|[[Musée national de la Marine|Musée de Marine]]}} was increasingly constrained to display its core naval-themed collections in the limited space it had in the second-floor [[attic]] of the northern half of the Cour Carrée, many of its significant holdings of non-Western artefacts were transferred in 1905 to the Trocadéro ethnography museum, the [[National Archaeological Museum, France|National Antiquities Museum]] in [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]], and the [[Chinese Museum (Fontainebleau)|Chinese Museum]] in the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]].<ref>{{cite book|date=1906 |author=Max Charles Emmanuel Champion de Nansouty |title=Actualites scientifiques, Volume 3 |page=282}}</ref> The Musée de Marine itself was relocated to the [[Palais de Chaillot]] in 1943. The Louvre's extensive collections of [[Asian art]] were moved to the [[Guimet Museum]] in 1945. Nevertheless, the Louvre's first gallery of [[Islamic art]] opened in 1893.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Introduction to Islamic Art – The Cour Visconti |url=https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore/the-palace/an-introduction-to-islamic-art |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=Le Louvre |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L15196, Paris, Besuch Gerd v. Rundstedt im Louvre.jpg|thumb|left|Generalfeldmarschall [[Gerd von Rundstedt]] is seen with a plaster model of the ''[[Venus de Milo]]'',<ref>''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=L0oEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40&q=%22the%20venus%20de%20milo%20now%20replaced%20by%20a%20plaster%20model%22 (4 November 1940), p. 39].</ref> while visiting the Louvre with the curator Alfred Merlin on 7 October 1940.]]

[[File:Meuble de type borne dans la grande galerie du Louvre.jpg|thumb|Seating designed by [[Pierre Paulin]] in the late 1960s, {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}}]]
[[File:Salon Carré D201805 2.jpg|thumb|{{ill|Marc Saltet|fr}}'s 1972 museography for the [[Salon Carré]], with "dos-à-dos" seat designed in 1967 by [[Pierre Paulin]]]]

In the late 1920s, Louvre Director [[Henri Verne]] devised a master plan for the rationalization of the museum's exhibitions, which was partly implemented in the following decade. In 1932–1934, Louvre architects {{ill|Camille Lefèvre (architect)|lt=Camille Lefèvre|fr|Camille Lefèvre (architecte)}} and Albert Ferran redesigned the [[Escalier Daru]] to its current appearance. The {{lang|fr|Cour du Sphinx}} in the South Wing was covered by a glass roof in 1934. Decorative arts exhibits were expanded in the first floor of the North Wing of the [[Cour Carrée]], including some of France's first [[period room]] displays. In the late 1930s, The La Caze donation was moved to a remodeled {{lang|fr|Salle La Caze}} above the {{lang|fr|salle des Caryatides}}, with reduced height to create more rooms on the second floor and a sober interior design by Albert Ferran.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

During [[World War II]], the Louvre conducted an elaborate plan of [[Evacuation of the Louvre museum art collection during World War II|evacuation of its art collection]]. When Germany occupied the [[Sudetenland]], many important artworks such as the ''[[Mona Lisa]]'' were temporarily moved to the [[Château de Chambord]]. When war was formally declared a year later, most of the museum's paintings were sent there as well. Select sculptures such as ''[[Winged Victory of Samothrace]]'' and the ''[[Venus de Milo]]'' were sent to the [[Château de Valençay]].<ref>Alan Riding, ''And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris''. Alfred A Knopf, New York: 2010. p. 34.</ref> On 27 August 1939, after two days of packing, truck convoys began to leave Paris. By 28 December, the museum was cleared of most works, except those that were too heavy and "unimportant paintings [that] were left in the basement".<ref>Matila Simon, "The battle of the Louvre;: The struggle to save French art in World War II". Hawthorn Books, 1971. p. 23.</ref> In early 1945, after the liberation of France, art began returning to the Louvre.<ref>Simon,&nbsp;p.&nbsp;177</ref>

New arrangements after the war revealed the further evolution of taste away from the lavish decorative practices of the late 19th century. In 1947, Edmond Guillaume's ceiling ornaments were removed from the {{lang|fr|Salle des Etats}},<ref name=Bresc/> where the ''Mona Lisa'' was first displayed in 1966.<ref>{{cite web |website=Louvre |author=Vincent Delieuvin |title=Les accrochages de la Joconde de 1797 à nos jour |url=https://focus.louvre.fr/sites/default/files/louvre-les-accrochages-joconde.pdf |access-date=1 May 2021 |archive-date=1 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501030432/https://focus.louvre.fr/sites/default/files/louvre-les-accrochages-joconde.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Around 1950, Louvre architect {{ill|Jean-Jacques Haffner|fr}} streamlined the interior decoration of the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Galerie]]|italic=no}}.<ref name=Bresc/> In 1953, a new ceiling by [[Georges Braque]] was inaugurated in the {{lang|fr|Salle Henri II}}, next to the {{lang|fr|Salle La Caze}}.<ref name=LAT>{{cite web|website=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-mar-27-la-et-louvre-twombly27-2010mar27-story.html |title=Hitting the Louvre ceiling |author=Devorah Lauter |date=27 March 2010}}</ref> In the late 1960s, seats designed by [[Pierre Paulin]] were installed in the {{lang|fr|Grande Galerie|italic=no}}.<ref>{{cite web|website=Elle Decor |title=Pierre Paulin, the man who made design an art |author=Rita Salerno |date=30 May 2019 |url=https://www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a27734656/pierre-paulin-biography-works/}}</ref> In 1972, the {{lang|fr|[[Salon Carré]]}}'s museography was remade with lighting from a hung tubular case, designed by Louvre architect {{ill|Marc Saltet|fr}} with assistance from designers {{ill|André Monpoix|fr}}, [[Joseph-André Motte]] and Paulin.<ref>{{cite web|website=Le Monde |title=Le "salon Carré", prestigieux vestibule à la Grande Galerie |author=Michel Conil Lacoste |date=9 February 1972 |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1972/02/09/le-salon-carre-prestigieux-vestibule-a-la-grande-galerie_2381391_1819218.html}}</ref>

In 1961, the Finance Ministry accepted to leave the [[Pavillon de Flore]] at the southwestern end of the Louvre building, as Verne had recommended in his 1920s plan. New exhibition spaces of sculptures (ground floor) and paintings (first floor) opened there later in the 1960s, on a design by government architect Olivier Lahalle.<ref>{{cite web|website=Le Figaro |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/histoire/2014/12/04/26001-20141204ARTFIG00203-1964-le-louvre-sera-le-plus-beau-musee-du-monde.php |title=1964 : Le Louvre sera le plus beau musée du monde |author=Pierre Mazars |date=18 November 1964}}</ref>

=== Grand Louvre ===
{{Main|Grand Louvre}}

In 1981, French President [[François Mitterrand]] proposed, as one of his [[Grands Projets of François Mitterrand|Grands Projets]], the Grand Louvre plan to relocate the [[Ministry of the Economy and Finance (France)|Finance Ministry]], until then housed in the North Wing of the Louvre, and thus devote almost the entire Louvre building (except its northwestern tip, which houses the separate [[Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris|Musée des Arts Décoratifs]]) to the museum which would be correspondingly restructured. In 1984 [[I. M. Pei]], the architect personally selected by Mitterrand, proposed a master plan including an underground entrance space accessed through a [[Louvre Pyramid|glass pyramid]] in the Louvre's central ''Cour Napoléon''.{{R|Mignot|page=66}}

The open spaces surrounding the pyramid were inaugurated on 15 October 1988, and its underground lobby was opened on 30 March 1989. New galleries of early modern French paintings on the 2nd floor of the [[Cour Carrée]], for which the planning had started before the ''Grand Louvre'', also opened in 1989. Further rooms in the same sequence, designed by [[Italo Rota]], opened on 15 December 1992.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

On 18 November 1993, Mitterrand inaugurated the next major phase of the Grand Louvre plan: the renovated North (Richelieu) Wing in the former Finance Ministry site, the museum's largest single expansion in its entire history, designed by Pei, his French associate Michel Macary, and [[Jean-Michel Wilmotte]]. Further underground spaces known as the [[Carrousel du Louvre]], centered on the [[Louvre Inverted Pyramid|Inverted Pyramid]] and designed by Pei and Macary, had opened in October 1993. Other refurbished galleries, of Italian sculptures and Egyptian antiquities, opened in 1994. The third and last main phase of the plan unfolded mainly in 1997, with new renovated rooms in the Sully and Denon wings. A new entrance at the ''porte des Lions'' opened in 1998, leading on the first floor to new rooms of Spanish paintings.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

As of 2002, the Louvre's visitor count had doubled from its pre-Grand-Louvre levels.<ref name="Biz">{{cite web | url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_24/b3787627.htm | date=17 June 2002 | title=Online Extra: Q&A with the Louvre's Henri Loyrette | work=Business Week Online | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210154237/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2002-06-16/online-extra-q-and-a-with-the-louvres-henri-loyrette | archive-date=10 December 2013| access-date=26 April 2015 }}</ref>
{{clear}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Louvre Courtyard, Looking West.jpg|The Napoleon Courtyard and [[I. M. Pei]]'s [[Louvre Pyramid|pyramid]] in its center, at dusk
</gallery>

=== 21st century ===
[[File:Cy Twombly Ceiling at Louvre Salle des Bronzes.jpg|thumb|Ceiling by [[Cy Twombly]] installed in 2010 in the {{lang|fr|Salle des Bronzes}}, before the room's redesign in 2021]]

President [[Jacques Chirac]], who had succeeded Mitterrand in 1995, insisted on the return of non-Western art to the Louvre, upon a recommendation from his friend the art collector and dealer {{ill|Jacques Kerchache|fr}}. On his initiative, a selection of highlights from the collections of what would become the [[Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac]] was installed on the ground floor of the {{lang|fr|Pavillon des Sessions}} and opened in 2000, six years ahead of the Musée du Quai Branly itself.

The main other initiative in the aftermath of the Grand Louvre project was Chirac's decision to create a new department of Islamic Art, by executive order of 1 August 2003, and to move the corresponding collections from their prior underground location in the Richelieu Wing to a more prominent site in the Denon Wing. That new section opened on 22 September 2012, together with collections from the Roman-era Eastern Mediterranean, with financial support from the [[Alwaleed Philanthropies|Al Waleed bin Talal Foundation]] and on a design by [[Mario Bellini]] and [[Rudy Ricciotti]].<ref name="Islamic art, covered">Gareth Harris (13 September 2012), [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ad9c2ff2-f5bf-11e1-bf76-00144feabdc0.html#axzz26xYVPBmB Islamic art, covered] ''[[Financial Times]]''.</ref><ref>Carol Vogel (19 September 2012), [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/arts/design/the-louvres-new-islamic-galleries-bring-riches-to-light.html The Louvre's New Islamic Galleries Bring Riches to Light] ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/2781939|title=Structural Innovation and the Stakes of Heritage: The Bellini-Ricciotti Louvre Dpt of Islamic Arts|author=Denis Bocquet|journal=Academia.edu|date=20 February 2013 }}</ref>

In 2007, German painter [[Anselm Kiefer]] was invited to create a work for the North stairs of the [[Claude Perrault|Perrault]] [[Louvre Colonnade|Colonnade]], ''Athanor''. This decision announces the museum's reengagement with contemporary art under the direction of [[Henri Loyrette]], fifty years after the institution's last order to a contemporary artists, [[Georges Braque|George Braque]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Serafin |first=Amy |date=21 October 2007 |title=The Louvre Now Accepts the Living |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/arts/design/21sera.html |access-date=16 January 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 2010, American painter [[Cy Twombly]] completed a new ceiling for the {{lang|fr|Salle des Bronzes}} (the former {{lang|fr|Salle La Caze}}), a counterpoint to that of Braque installed in 1953 in the adjacent {{lang|fr|Salle Henri II}}. The room's floor and walls were redesigned in 2021 by Louvre architect Michel Goutal to revert the changes made by his predecessor Albert Ferran in the late 1930s, triggering protests from the Cy Twombly Foundation on grounds that the then-deceased painter's work had been created to fit with the room's prior decoration.<ref>{{cite web|website=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/arts/design/louvre-cy-twombly-ceiling.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/arts/design/louvre-cy-twombly-ceiling.html |archive-date=28 December 2021 |url-access=limited |title=Palace Intrigue at the Louvre, as a Paint Job Leads to a Lawsuit |author=Doreen Carvajal |date=5 March 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

That same year, the Louvre commissioned French artist [[François Morellet]] to create a work for the Lefuel stairs, on the first floor. For ''L'esprit d'escalier'' Morellet redesigned the stairscase's windows, echoing their original structures but distorting them to create a disturbing optical effect.<ref>{{Cite web |title="L'esprit d'escalier", François Morellet {{!}} Cnap |url=https://www.cnap.fr/lesprit-descalier-francois-morellet |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=www.cnap.fr}}</ref>

On 6 June 2014, the Decorative Arts section on the first floor of the [[Cour Carrée]]'s northern wing opened after comprehensive refurbishment.<ref>{{cite web|website=La Tribune de l'Art |title=La réouverture des salles d'objets d'art du Louvre, de Louis XIV à Louis XVI |author=Didier Rykner |date=8 June 2014 |url=https://www.latribunedelart.com/la-reouverture-des-salles-d-objets-d-art-du-louvre-de-louis-xiv-a-louis-xvi-5107-5107-5107}}</ref>

In January 2020, under the direction of [[Jean-Luc Martinez]], the museum inaugurated a new contemporary art commission, ''L'Onde du Midi'' by Venezuelan kinetic artist [[Elias Crespin]]. The sculpture hovers under the Escalier du Midi, the staircase on the South of the [[Louvre Colonnade|Perrault Colonnade]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 January 2020 |title=Elias Crespin, l'art de la ligne au Louvre |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/arts-expositions/elias-crespin-l-art-de-la-ligne-au-louvre-20200120 |access-date=16 January 2023 |website=LEFIGARO |language=fr}}</ref>

The Louvre, like many other museums and galleries, felt the [[impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural heritage]]. It was closed for six months during French coronavirus lockdowns and saw visitor numbers plunge to 2.7 million in 2020, from 9.6 million in 2019 and 10.2 million in 2018, which was a record year.<ref>{{Cite web|date=8 January 2021|title=Louvre museum visitors dropped more than 70% in virus-wracked 2020|url=https://www.france24.com/en/culture/20210108-louvre-museum-visitors-dropped-more-than-70-in-virus-wracked-2020|access-date=13 January 2021|website=France 24|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Makoni |first=Abbianca |date=19 May 2021 |title=Bienvenu! Louvre museum reopens after six month shutdown |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/louvre-reopens-paris-coronavirus-pandemic-france-b935995.html |access-date=7 December 2022 |website=Evening Standard |language=en}}</ref>

In preparation for the [[2024 Summer Olympics|2024 Olympics]], the Louvre staged an exhibit about the Games' history that links their ancient beginnings to the modern era.<ref>{{Cite news |last=LaBarge |first=Emily |date=April 26, 2024 |title=At the Louvre, the Olympics Are More French Than You Might Think |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/arts/louvre-olympics-exhibition.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Attendance rose to 8.9 million in 2023, 14 percent above 2022, but still short of the record of 10.2 million in 2018.<ref name="francetvinfo.fr" />

In January 2025, French President [[Emmanuel Macron]] announced plans for a renovation and expansion of the Louvre, including a room solely for the Mona Lisa. The planned renovation and expansion was a result of the increasing number of visitors each year to the Louvre.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Francis |first=Ellen |date=28 January 2025 |title=Mona Lisa to get a room of her own in Louvre museum renovation |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/28/louve-museum-renovation-mona-lisa/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250129135438/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/28/louve-museum-renovation-mona-lisa/ |archive-date=29 January 2025 |access-date=29 January 2025 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>{{clear}}
<gallery mode="packed" captionstyle="font-size: small;">
File:Pavillon des Sessions 01.jpg|The {{lang|fr|Pavillon des Sessions}}'s display of non-Western art from the [[Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac|Musée du Quai Branly]], opened in 2000
File:Cour Visconti (Louvre) D201512a.jpg|The {{lang|fr|Cour Visconti}}'s ground floor covered to host the new Islamic Art Department in 2012
File:Les arts de lIslam au Louvre (8055981963).jpg|Islamic art display in the covered {{lang|fr|Cour Visconti}}, 2012
File:Louvre, dipartimento di arte islamica, 01.JPG|Underground display of the Islamic Art Department, 2012
</gallery>