Editing Louvre (section)

=== 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>
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<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>