Description
The total area of the museum is 160,106 sqm. and the exhibitions increased from 31,260 sqm in 1984 to 58470 square meters in 2002. It would reach 60,620 sqm in 2005. At the same time, the average attendance has almost doubled
Visitors are foreign to almost two thirds (63.4%). The Europeans arrived in the lead and represent 36.5% of admissions. The North Americans (18.5%) and Asians (7%) are also big battalions. Ile-de-France (19%) is little more than other regions (17.6%). A visitor to the Louvre just two for the first time. The average duration of the visit is of the order of 3:15.
History
The Louvre Palace, residence of the kings of France before Louis XIV moved to Versailles, stretches 700 feet along the embankment to the right in the heart of Paris. World's largest museum of its size and wealth of its collections, it is a perspective of several kilometers through the Tuileries Gardens, Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elysees and up Etoile, ending with the Grande Arche de la Defense.
Philippe Auguste will build, in 1200, the fortress of the Louvre street north shore. A tower surrounded by a moat, a symbol of privilege of the sovereign, will take place at the center. Foundations of the dungeon and moat, which still exist, are part of the medieval section of the museum. Rebuilt in the mid-sixteenth century to become a palace, the Louvre became the residence of the King. In 1527, Francis will announce his decision to move to the Louvre. It will stimulate the collection of the masters of Italian painting of the Renaissance. The Louvre will inherit and twelve paintings including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, La Belle Jardiniere Raphael and the Portrait of Francis I by Titian.
Buildings will be added and modified to retain the character of a royal residence until Louis XIV in 1682, when it decides to transfer the Court at Versailles. The palace will be left unattended for almost a century. The museum will be launched August 10, 1793, when the doors of the Grand Gallery will be open to visitors. Napoleon will build the north wing of the palace, which will serve as a building for the storage and exhibition of the confiscation of the empire. Most works looted during the conquests will be restored in 1815. Napoleon command the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. Louvre will be completed by Napoleon III. Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis-Philippe contribute to the enrichment of collections. The Tuileries, row, will be burned in 1871 during the Paris Commune.
The building architecture that shows the talent of the sculptors and architects from the XIII century, is a patchwork composite of several styles that have marked the landscape of the capital. It reflects the Renaissance, Classicism, the First and Second Empire and contemporary architecture. Only the former republics, from revolutionary times, seem to have neglected to report their presence. President Francois Mitterrand will mark two seven by the complete renovation of the museum, which will be assigned spaces occupied by the Ministry of Finance. He confided to the site Chinese-American architect IM Pei, who built a pyramid of glass very noticeable in the center Napoleon Court. The budget for this work will be around one billion euros.
Only 35,000 of the 300,000 works of art heritage museum are exhibited. Its collections cover the period between the most distant antiquity (7000 years before Christ) and the 1850s. They precede the works exhibited at the Orsay Museum, devoted to the period between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century, as well as those of the Centre d'Art Contemporain Georges Pompidou, who complete the life cycle.
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