Louvre - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Musee du Louvre
Established10 August 1793; 231 years ago (1793-08-10)
LocationMusée du Louvre, 75001 Paris, France
TypeArt museum and historic site
Collection size615,797 in 2019[1] (35,000 on display)[2]
Visitors2.7 million (2020)[3]
DirectorJean-Luc Martinez
CuratorMarie-Laure de Rochebrune
Public transit access
Websitewww.louvre.fr
Statue in marble, about 190 BC. Found in Samothrace in 1863

The Louvre is a museum in Paris. It has millions of visitors every year because of its art collection. It is the most visited art museum in the world.

The most famous piece of art in the Louvre is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Other paintings include works of Rembrandt, Giambattista Pittoni, Caravaggio, Rubens, Titian and Eugène Delacroix.

There are also many statues inside the Louvre. The most famous statues are the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

History of the Louvre

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Philip II of France built a castle called the Castle of the Louvre. It used to be where the museum is. They used the castle as a fortress to defend Paris against the Vikings. Charles V, King of France turned the castle into a palace. However, Francis I, King of France, knocked it down and built a new palace.

Henry IV, King of France added the Grande Galerie to the Louvre. The Grande Galerie is more than a quarter of a mile long and one hundred feet wide. The Grande Galerie was built along the River Seine. It was the longest building in the world.

The building was renovated during François Mitterand's time as French President. The glass pyramid and the inverted pyramid (made famous by The Da Vinci Code, a novel and later a movie) were the work of architect I.M. Pei.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Rapport d'activité 2019 du musée du Louvre, p. 29, website www.louvre.fr.
  2. "Louvre Museum". museums.eu.
  3. "The Art Newspaper", 30 March 2021

Other websites

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