Suites, Christian Milovanoff
© Christian Milovanoff

Christian Milovanoff
Suites

Musée du Louvre Communications
Aggy Lerolle aggy.lerolle@louvre.fr

U.S. PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES

Building on its strong relations with the United States, the Musée du Louvre is working with a group of American cultural institutions to bring selected treasures from its collections to  audiences across the country. Approximately 18% of the Louvre’s annual visitors are  American—by far the largest group of visitors from any country outside France. Americans also have one of the highest levels of visitor satisfaction out of all the museum’s visitors.

This year, multiple initiatives enlarge the parameters of the Louvre’s collaboration in the U.S, including major traveling exhibitions at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the DenverArt Museum, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, as well as The Frick Collection, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Louvre is also actively working to bring American art to its Paris home, and has begun plans for an American art collection. Ties between the museum and its American audience are further strengthened through the efforts of the American Friends of the Louvre and its

associated programs. All of these initiatives help the Louvre cement its role as a universal museum, dedicated to bringing art to all.

Launched in 2006, “Louvre Atlanta” is an unprecedented three-year partnership between the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Louvre, a project unlike any venture of its kind between two museums.

The partnership includes the exchange of cultural expertise and operational strategies as well as educational programs and the development of joint publications, conferences, films, and seminars exploring exhibitions and related themes.

The “Louvre Atlanta” project gives rise to a series of long-term thematic exhibitions exploring the range, depth and historic development of the Louvre’s collections—from the Louvre’s creation in 1793 to the present day. Each of these exhibitions will include between 50 and 80 works, loaned for periods ranging from 3 to 11 months. The duration of the loan for each work is determined by the Louvre in order not to deprive its own visitors of certain works for too long a period.

To date, “Louvre Atlanta” exhibitions have attracted nearly 450,000 visitors to the High, 60,000 of which were students. In addition, the High’s membership reached a peak of more than 50,000 households during “Louvre Atlanta,” ranking in the top 10 among American art museums.

“Louvre Atlanta” has resulted in important collaborative scholarship on works from the Louvre’s collections, and has allowed for productive exchanges on curatorial methods. The partnership has also allowed for the restoration of historic works, such as with “The Tiber,” one of the largest and most important Roman antiquities in the Louvre’s collection. Exhibition catalogues and other publications illustrating this common work exist in both French and English.

Featuring masterpieces from the founding cultures of Western civilization, “The Louvre in the Ancient World” includes more than 50 works from the Louvre’s unparalleled Egyptian, Near Eastern and GrecoU.

Roman antiquities collections. Showcasing works dating from the third millennium B.C. through the third century A.D., the exhibition will examine Napoleon’s fascination with and appropriation of antiquities, the discovery and interpretation of ancient writing systems such as hieroglyphics and cuneiform, and the Louvre’s leading role in excavating the cradle of civilization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The

oldest works in the exhibition are drawn from the ancient cultures of Egypt, the Persian site of Susa (in modern Iran), the Neo-Sumerian city of Tello (in modern Iraq), and the Canaanite city of Ugarit (in modern Syria). A special installation will showcase a ten-foot long, colossal statue, The Tiber—among the largest in the Louvre’s collections—personifying the TiberRiver, Rome‘s main artery for trade.

Curators: Sophie Cluzan, Eastern Antiquities; Sophie Descamps, Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities; and Marc Etienne, Egyptian Antiquities.

“The Eye of Josephine” reassembles more than 60 masterworks from the collection of Greco-Roman and Egyptian antiquities that were installed by the Empress Josephine at Malmaison, her residence located on the outskirts of Paris. In 1802 Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, gave a collection of antiquities unearthed at Herculaneum and Pompeii as a peace offering to Napoleon Bonaparte, then prime Consul, and his wife Josephine. Josephine’s display of these and other works in her private residence established her role as one of the earliest and most passionate art collectors of her time. “The Eye of Josephine” reunites Josephine’s antiquities for the first time since their dispersal throughout various collections in the Louvre in 1814, featuring fragments of frescoes, bronzes, marbles, an extensive group of Greek vases, and a small number of Egyptian sculptures.

Curators: Martine Denoyelle and Sophie Descamps, Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities.

The exhibition will feature the work of Jean-Antoine Houdon, a major artist of the French Enlightenment whose portraiture depicts prominent intellectual and political figures of the era. The exhibition will include approximately 20 works, such as the famous busts of Denis Diderot and François-Marie Arouet Voltaire, and portraits of American forefathers George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Well-known portraits of Houdon’s wife and children will also be included.

Managing curators for the “Louvre Atlanta” exhibitions are Isabelle Leroy-Jay Lemaistre, Curator of Sculpture at the Musée du Louvre, and David Brenneman, Director of Collections & Exhibitions at the HighMuseum of Art.

The total budget for “Louvre Atlanta” is estimated at $18 million. This includes a €5.5 million fee from the High that will go toward the restoration of the Louvre’s 18th-century French decorative arts galleries. The balance of the budget offsets the development of “Louvre Atlanta.” These funds will allow the High to develop special programming in Atlanta and will cover costs associated with mounting three years of programming encompassing the nine exhibitions, such as insurance, travel, marketing and publications and advertising, and security for this unprecedented project.

To date, the High Museum of Art has raised nearly $17 million in support of “Louvre Atlanta.” Lead patronage for the project has been provided by longtime High Museum Board Member Anne Cox Chambers. Accenture is the Presenting Partner. UPS, Turner Broadcasting Corporation, the Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, and AXA Art Insurance are Lead Corporate Partners for “Louvre Atlanta.”

The Foundation Partner is The Sara Giles Moore Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Forward Arts Foundation, Frances B. Bunzl, and Tull Charitable Foundation.

This fall, objects from the Louvre’s collections will travel to the Western United States for the first time.

Featuring works from the first year of “Louvre Atlanta” as well as new works lent specifically for “Artisans & Kings,” the exhibition tells the intriguing stories of Paris’ artisans and kings through decorative arts, sculptures, paintings, antiquities and drawings from the reigns of Louis XIV, XV and XVI. These three monarchs played a pivotal role in what is considered the greatest period of development for French decorative arts, and their royal collections became the core of the Louvre’s holdings. The

exhibition will feature Gobelin’s 1775 tapestry The Loves of the Gods, Vertume and Pomone and a selection of Sèvres porcelain, completed by works from Rubens, Titian, Velazquez and Dürer among others. The exhibition draws on the breadth of the Louvre’s holdings and showcases this material in a way not possible in the Louvre’s massive permanent collections.

? Collections of kings provides a rare look into the formation of the royal collection’s masterworks of painting, drawing and sculpture. Among the highlights is Titian’s Woman with Mirror, c.1515, a quintessentially Venetian masterpiece that exemplifies the artist’s deft handling of color and light.

Additional highlights include Velazquez’s The Infanta Margarita of 1653, Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego (The Arcadian Shepherds), c. 1638, a 17th century bronze of Pope Urban VIII by Bernini, and more than 40 drawings from the royal collection.

? Politics of style reveals the kings’ influential role in cultivating the production of luxury goods by promoting and investing in the porcelain, tapestry, and glass industries, which fostered the greatest period of development for French decorative arts. Highlights include a silver platter cover of exceptional detail by François-Thomas Germain, and a porcelain and bronze gilt Sèvres vase.

? Trappings of power explores the role art played in promoting the public image of the king through public sculpture, painting and decorative furnishing at Versailles. Works include an equestrian statue of Louis XIV by Thomas Gobert and a large-scale tapestry produced at the Gobelin’s factory which includes the coat of arms of France.

? Crafting a lifestyle features objects produced for the kings’ opulent public and private lives at Versailles, such as a collection of rare gold Sèvres porcelain including porcelain pots-pourris owned by Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV.

This exhibition is accompanied by a 163-page, full-color catalogue. Published by the DenverArt Museum and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the catalogue features a collection of scholarly essays by museum curators and additional contributors. The decorative pieces in the exhibition are largely drawn from the Louvre’s department of Decorative arts whose rooms are currently closed to the public due to construction. The exhibition is supported by Accenture.

Curators: Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, Decorative Arts Department; Catherine Loisel-Théret, Graphic Arts Department; Sophie Descamps, Department of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Antiquities; Isabelle Lemaistre, Sculpture Department; and Olivier Meslay, Painting Department.

In Denver, the exhibition has been organized by Timothy Standring, the Gates Foundation Curator of Painting and Sculpture, and Melora McDermott-Lewis, Director of Education and Master Teacher for European and American Art.

The Louvre and the American Federation of Arts have organized the largest traveling exhibition of works ever drawn from the Louvre’s collections, which premieres at the Indianapolis Museum of Art this fall.

Featuring 184 works drawn from the Louvre’s unparalleled collection of Roman art, “Roman Art from the Louvre” includes mosaics, frescoes, terracotta statuettes, monumental sculptures, sarcophagi, marble reliefs, glass and metal vessels, and gold jewelry, none of which has ever traveled to the United States.

Organized thematically, the exhibition examines everyday Roman public and private life through different lenses, including religion, urbanism, war, imperial expansion, funerary practices, intellectual life, and family.

“Roman Art from the Louvre” traces the genealogy of the four main Roman dynasties—the Julio-Claudians, the Antonines, the Severans, and the family of Constantine—through an examination of works made between the first century BC and the early fourth century AD. The exhibition will include a section devoted to non-citizens of Rome: foreigners, freedmen, and slaves, and will also examine the role of women during this period. The exhibition will close with ancient statues that have been repeatedly repaired and altered since the Renaissance, reflecting both the ongoing interest in Roman art and the way in which it has been collected, interpreted and restored over the centuries. Exhibition highlights include:

? relief sculptures from Emperor Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli;

? busts of prominent Roman leaders including Marcus Aurelius, and Agrippa;

? statues of the emperors Augustus, Caligula, and Trajan

? imperial rings, necklaces, and earrings;

? statues of Isis, Venus, Minerva, and Bacchus;

? early depictions of theatrical scenes, portraits of actors, and theatrical masks;

? military diplomas and army medallions;

? sarcophagi, urns, and related ritual objects; and

? household objects found at Pompeii and Herculaneum

The exhibition is supported locally by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Following its presentation in Indianapolis, the exhibition will travel to the SeattleArt Museum (February 19–May 11, 2008) and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art (June 19–October 12, 2008).

“Roman Art from the Louvre” will be accompanied by an illustrated exhibition catalogue published by AFA and the University of Washington Press featuring three major essays and individual catalogue entries written by the guest curators as well as other scholars of Roman art, including experts from the Louvre.

Commissioners: Daniel Roger and Cécile Giroire, Department of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Antiquities.

In addition to the above partnerships, the Louvre has co-organized two exhibitions with other American institutions: Gabriel de Saint-Aubin at the Frick Collection, which premieres in New York on October 16 before traveling back to the Louvre in the spring of 2008, and Desiderio de Settignano, Sculpture of the Renaissance at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Desiderio de Settignano premieres at the Louvre and travels to Washington in July 2008.

The Louvre is actively working to explore relationships with America at its home in Paris. In the spring of 2006, the Louvre celebrated “An American Season,” which included the exhibition American Artists and the Louvre. Also in 2006, The Louvre Invites Toni Morrison, a collaboration between the museum and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, examined the interchange between art and identity, race and politics.

In July 2007 the Louvre acquired Phaeton asking Apollo permission to drive the Chariot of the Sun, a major painting by American artist Benjamin West (1738 – 1820), for its permanent collection. The acquisition underscores the Louvre’s ambition to build a collection of American art. Prior to this addition, the collection included only three works by American artists.

In 2003, the Louvre and the American Friends of the Louvre initiated the Louvre Leonardo School Exchange, which offers French and American high school students, their teachers, and their families the possibility to share in an educational and artistic program designed to create better understanding between the two cultures. The most recent exchange, in the summer of 2006, coincided with the Louvre’s “American Season” and the associated exhibition, American Artists and the Louvre.

The Louvre founded American Friends of the Louvre (AFL) in 2002 to strengthen ties between the museum and the American public and formalize the longstanding generosity of American patrons.

AFL’s goals are:

? To support the Louvre in its efforts to improve educational tools and visiting conditions, particularly for American and other English-speaking visitors, which include the translation of labels and online collections database, and the development of English-language publications.

? To promote exchanges between the Louvre and American institutions through the development of cultural activities in the U.S., such as exhibitions, educational programs and professional and scholarly exchanges.

? To participate in the financing of Louvre projects, such as renovations of galleries, new displays of collections, and educational programs both in France and the U.S.

Individuals making gifts of $10,000 or more on an annual basis are recognized in the Chairman’s Circle.

A number of events are planned throughout the year for Circle members, including an annual recognition dinner in New York and a trip to Paris planned around the theme of a major exhibition at the Louvre. In the fall of 2008, AFL and the Louvre will recognize individuals who contribute an annual gift of $25,000 with the launch of International Friends. Members will have the opportunity to participate in annual trips that each focus on one of the Louvre’s international partnerships.

Corporations are also invited to participate in a two-tiered membership program, which provides benefits and visibility in both the U.S. and France.

AFL regularly organizes fundraising events and galas in support of its charitable activities on behalf of the Louvre. Most recently, AFL hosted fundraising dinners in Houston (February 2007) and Los Angeles (May 2007), with proceeds designated towards the renovation costs of the Louvre’s 18th century decorative arts galleries, to which American Friends of the Louvre has pledged $4 million.

U.S. Programs and Initiatives, 6

Christopher Forbes, Vice Chairman of Forbes, Inc., is Chairman of the Board of Directors of American Friends of the Louvre. Other officers are President Henri Loyrette (Paris), Vice Chairman Becca Cason Thrash (Houston), Secretary Victoria Bjorklund (New York), and Treasurer Patrick Gerschel (New York). Other board members include Max Blumberg (Miami), Henri de Castries (Paris), Charles de Croisset (Paris), Janine Hill (New York), Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière (Paris), Howard and Gretchen Leach (San Francisco), Henri Loyrette (Paris), H.I.H. Princesse Napoléon (Paris), and Katharine Rayner (Atlanta & New York).

The offices of American Friends of the Louvre are based in New York. Inquiries should be directed to Sue Devine, executive director, at (212) 367-2649.

American Friends of the Louvre raises funds from individuals, corporations, and foundations to support its mission and general activities and for specific board-approved initiatives. Projects funded to date include the creation of informational panels in three languages (English-Spanish-French) throughout the Louvre’s major galleries, the English translation of the online collections database (Atlas), and the upgrading of audio systems for guided tours.

In addition, AFL has assisted in the establishment of grants for educational support, such as a curatorial fellowship in the Louvre’s Department of Islamic Art, and a one-year research fellowship to inventory and create an online database of American art in French public collections.

AFL has also supported exhibitions of American art at the Louvre. In the summer of 2006, AFL and the Broad Art Foundation underwrote an installation by contemporary American artist Mike Kelley titled Green Depths. In November, AFL sponsored The Louvre Invites Toni Morrison, a collaboration between the Louvre and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. The month-long program of readings, panel discussions, film screenings and recitals at the Louvre addressed the theme of “The Foreigner’s Home,” examining the interchange between art and identity, race and politics.

EXPANSIONS AT THE LOUVRE AND BEYOND

Long a leader in museum development, the Louvre has a range of major capital projects scheduled for the coming years. In Paris, these include the construction of new galleries for Islamic Arts, the renovation of the eighteenth-century decorative arts galleries, and the remodeling of the Louvre’s famous pyramid entrance.

Internationally, the Louvre is involved in several partnerships that underscore its service as a universal museum, dedicated to presenting its collections to broad audiences across the globe—including those who
do not have easy access to Paris. Principally, the Louvre Lens and the Louvre Abu Dhabi will bring the collections and expertise of the Louvre to new areas. In addition to major exhibitions in the United States, Australia, China, Korea, and Japan, other initiatives are underway in Syria, Egypt, Sudan, and Ecuador. These projects include professional exchange programs, advice on local museum renovations, and joint archaeological excavations and scientific research.

1. Department of Islamic Art

The Louvre created its Department of Islamic Art in 2003, reassembling objects that were previously dispersed in various other departments. At the time, President Jacques Chirac explained that this project would further the Louvre’s mission as a universal cultural institution and “underline, for France and the rest of the world, the essential contributions made by Islamic civilizations to our culture.” The Louvre continues to fulfill this mission with the construction of new galleries for Islamic art, currently underway.

With 10,000 objects, the Louvre’s collection of Islamic art is one of the most extensive in the world, covering all regions of the Islamic world—from Spain to India—and spanning the seventh to the nineteenth century. Due to existing space restrictions, however, only 20% of these works can be displayed at one time. The construction of new galleries will quadruple existing exhibition space, allowing visitors to better understand the breadth of Islamic artistic practice.

Design of the New Galleries

After holding an international competition for the design of the new galleries in July of 2004, seven teams were picked as finalists. The project was awarded to the Milanese architect Mario Bellini, renowned for his additions to historical museums, and to Rudy Riccotti, winner of France’s National Architecture Award in 2006.

Two stories of new galleries will be built into the Visconti court, in the southern wing of the Palace. The first level will hold works from the seventh to ninth centuries, and the second will contain works from the eleventh to nineteenth centuries along with a section of tapestries. The spaces will be covered by a luminous veil made of glass discs, floating delicately over the galleries. Original Louvre facades will remain exposed within the space, creating a wonderful juxtaposition between modern and classical, Eastern and Western

The inauguration of the new galleries is scheduled for 2010.

Financing of the Project

The total cost of the project is €62.2 million, to which the French government is contributing €26 million. A generous donation of €17 million has been given from the Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, one of the largest private donations in the history of France. The Amir of Kuwait has made a donation of €5 million toward the educational projects of the department. Recently, the Sultan of Oman made a €5 million donation towards the planning and out-fitting of the space. Private donations from French benefactors, both individuals and corporations, total €4 million.

2. Renovation of the 18th Century Furniture Galleries

The Louvre is home to one of the most extraordinary collections of European furniture and decorative art objects in the world, consisting mainly of French pieces and representing a long range of history, from the late Classical period to the middle of the 19th century. At the creation of the museum in 1793, the collection was formed from objects stored in the royal and imperial furniture repositories, along with others seized during the Revolution. The collection has been continually enriched throughout the museum’s subsequent history.

A Collection that Requires a New Place of Prominence

The Louvre’s collection of 18th century furniture is particularly strong. Demonstrating the best of French
style and the superior craftsmanship and artistry of French artisans, the collection consisting mainly of Parisian furniture—some of which was originally commissioned for royal or princely residences—as well as tapestries and pieces in precious woods, silver, gold, and porcelain. The collection has outgrown its current exhibition space, which was designed in the 1960s and occupies 21,500 square feet in the Sully wing. Renovations to the 18th century furniture galleries will enhance the presentation of these exemplary works and imbue them with new visibility and clarity within the architectural setting of the Louvre Palace.

Newly Designed Galleries

Goals for the new galleries are to create the highest quality display for visitors while respecting the need for the maximum security of the objects. Laurence Carminati, Aurelo Galfetti, and Yann Keromnes are the architects for the project. Their design allows the objects to be organized into four periods: the end of Louis XIV’s reign and the Regency, from 1770 to 1725; the rise and flowering of the Rococo style, 1725 – 1750; the neoclassical reaction, 1750 – 1775; and the triumph of Neoclassicism from 1775 to 1790.

Each of these four periods will be explored through a number of themes, including styles, artists, sponsors, functions, techniques, and modes of production. Furniture will be exhibited in one of two ways: in comprehensive “Period Rooms,” and in “Interior Recollections,” which provide a themed overview of works in the same style and period to allow visitors to discover the functions and use of the objects. Works from the departments of painting, sculpture, and graphic arts will be incorporated into the presentations.

Further, four historic rooms in the west wing of the Cour Carrée will showcase the Crown Jewels in an entirely new installation, recreating the interior design and furnishings of the grand private rooms of the Tuileries Palace during the First Empire and Restoration periods.

Currently the rooms displaying European furniture and art are closed for renovation, but some significant pieces, including the gifts from Grog-Carven and Chagoury, are open to the public. The re-opening of the galleries will take place in 2011.

Project Financing

The cost of the project is estimated at €16 million. The project is benefiting from two important sources of support in the United States. The first source is the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and its committee of donors in part, and in particular the support of Anne Cox Chambers, Accenture, UPS Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc., Delta Airlines, Coca Cola Inc. and Axa Art Insurance, along with the Sarah Giles Moore Foundation, Forward Arts Foundation, Francis B. Bunzl Foundation and the Tull Charitable Foundation. In addition, American Friends of the Louvre is leading a campaign to secure $4 million in funds, for the restoration of the rooms from the Hotel Villemaire. The renovation program is also benefiting from the generosity of collectors and donors to the Louvre through the work of the Circle Crescent, chaired by Madame Maryvonne Pinault.

3. The Pyramid Project

Inaugurated in 1989, the Pyramid was designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei to receive 4 million visitors annually. Eighteen years later, the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world, welcoming more than 8.3 million visitors in 2006. Studies predict that attendance will continue to increase by an additional 20% by the year 2010, largely due to more visitors from China, India, and the rest of Asia. If the Louvre’s Pyramid is to remain as a welcome hall and live on as a symbol of the Louvre, it must be adapted to accommodate the increasing number of visitors.

When he visited the Louvre in 2006, I.M. Pei came to the following conclusion: “The Louvre is the most handsome museum in world. It is necessary to resolve its complex functional problems, while preserving the quality of the space and the appearance of the Napoleon Hall. If one analyzes the different elements that compose the space in the Napoleon Hall together, the lack of equilibrium between certain parts, some almost empty corners, the redundant comings and goings of the public between the ticket desk, the coat room and the information bank, these are no longer adapted to the actual needs of the museum. It is clear that one must and should find a solution.” Pei has agreed to take on the task of redesigning the space beneath the Pyramid.

Project Objectives, Calendar, and Budget

The project aims to increase hospitality, information exchange, and personalization. The design will expand and reorganize ticketing areas, and remedy overcrowding so that visitors can have better access to
the information bank.

Recent surveys have reported a rate of 95% visitor satisfaction. The re-design of the Pyramid is intended to maintain this high level of satisfaction as attendance grows—making the Louvre not only the world’s most visited museum, but the world’s best museum to visit.

The goal is to complete the Pyramid project by 2014. The budget is estimated at 70 million euros.

4. Louvre-Lens

Renewing its commitment to serve all of France, in 2004 the Louvre announced plans to create a new museum in Lens, a Northern French town at the heart of a mining region. The project, to be completed in 2010, will meet several goals:
• To reinforce the fundamental mission of the Louvre, renew the presentation of the collection through new themes, establish new cultural projects, and experiment with new curatorial approaches;
• To create a true educational and cultural center that will lead to a larger network of information and cultural exchanges;
• To help the economic redevelopment of the Northern Pas-de-Calais region.

The Louvre will be present in Lens in all aspects of its mission—artistic, social, educational—and will offer a full spectrum of activities. Works will be loaned on temporary basis and also in long-term exhibitions. Louvre-Lens gives the Louvre the ability to rethink its role as a museum in the 21st century, experimenting with curatorial techniques which are impossible to realize in Paris. Objects from different curatorial departments will be brought together in a contemporary architectural space. Eliminating traditional departmental boundaries will allow visitors to understand these works within a new context.

A Contemporary Design for the New Museum

More than 20 international candidates participated in the architectural competition. The project was awarded in September of 2005 to the Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, who are associated with the American museum architectural firm Imrey-Culbert. In the United States, Sejima is known for designs of sober elegance, including the Toledo Museum of Art and a new building for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, scheduled to open in New York City in December. Sejima and Nishizawa have proposed a structure of glass and light for Louvre-Lens.

Project Financing

The financing plan demonstrates the innovative character of this project. Eighty percent of the building cost will be met by the local community, with the remaining 20% financed by the European Union, for a total budget of approximately €120 million. In addition to devoting a team to oversee the project and lending its name, its expertise and its works, the Louvre is also involved in assisting the community with fund raising strategies.

5. Louvre Abu Dhabi

On March 6, 2007, France and the United Arab Emirates formed an inter-governmental agreement to create the Louvre Abu Dhabi. France will aid in the conception of the new museum, which will eventually become independent. This mutual co-operation will promote dialogue between the cultures and civilizations of the Middle East and the West. “In choosing the Louvre,” declared Jacques Chirac, president of France at the time, “Abu Dhabi made the choice of a museum whose vocation from the beginning was to attain a universal perspective through the contemplation of art.”

Project History

The project was born two years ago, when officials from the United Arab Emirates approached the Louvre for assistance in the conception of a new museum for their capital, Abu Dhabi. They wished to find a well-recognized institution with technical expertise that would lend works of art while the museum develops collections of its own. As the new museum seeks to cover periods and cultures not included in the Louvre’s collection, such as Asian art, other French institutions will now join the Louvre’s leadership in meeting this request. In particular, the Châteaux de Versailles, the Musée d’Orsay, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musée quai Branly, and the Musée Guimet are part of the inter-governmental agreement signed in March 2007.

The Future Museum

The Louvre Abu Dhabi will be a universal museum whose collection will eventually include major works of art in the fields of archaeology, fine art, and decorative art, covering all periods and geographic areas. The United Arab Emirates seeks to encourage international dialogue, and to give residents of Abu Dhabi the opportunity to discover Western art while at the same time learning about the larger world.

The project will unfold in phases, beginning with the opening of the new building in 2013. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the space will offer approximately 21,000 square feet for temporary exhibitions and 64,000 square feet for permanent collections.

The second phase will last ten years from opening day. During this time, France will loan works from its national collections on a rotating basis, to be displayed in lieu of a permanent collection. Three-hundred works will be loaned during the first three years, followed by 250 works for the next four years, and ending with 200 works for the final four years. Each object will be loaned for a period between six months and two years. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates will acquire works for its own national collection. At the end of ten years, only works from the U.A.E. collections will be exhibited in the museum’s permanent galleries.

In addition, France will organize four temporary exhibitions a year—one major, one medium-sized, and two smaller-scale exhibitions—for fifteen years, gradually reducing its involvement until the Louvre Abu Dhabi is fully independent.

The museum in Abu Dhabi will carry the name of the Louvre for thirty years, highlighting the primary role of the Louvre in its establishment, and aligning the Louvre’s international reputation with its own ambitions to become a universal museum. In turn, Louvre Abu Dhabi contributes to the international expansion of the Louvre and its name.

Louvre Projects Benefiting from the Partnership

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a cultural partnership that will also produce financial resources of €1 billion over the course of 30 years. These resources will benefit all of the museums participating in the project, allowing them to finance new initiatives and enrich their own collections. The French museums contributing to the project united in July 2007 to create Agence France-Muséums.

As principal lender, the Louvre will receive a total of €400 million. This amount also recognizes the cooperation of France and the Louvre in allowing the use of the name “Louvre Abu Dhabi” for thirty years.

These exceptional resources will permit the Louvre to fund several new initiatives. Principal projects are:
• The remodelling of the Flore Pavilion, the last space at the Louvre not yet open to the public.
• The creation of an international center for research and restoration. The center will house all of the Louvre’s objects currently in storage at various locations on the outskirts of Paris. This new facility will also save priceless works of art from the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Decorative Art Museum from the threat of flooding from the Seine. The general public will have access to certain areas of the facility, such as reserve collections, and the chance to watch stages of the conservation process.

CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE LOUVRE

Since its inception in 1793, the Louvre has welcomed new and emerging artists into its halls to follow in the footsteps of their great predecessors. The Louvre continues this tradition today, providing contemporary artists with space in its galleries and on its stage to showcase new works of fine art, film, photography, music, dance, and literature.

Two significant commissions of the past include Eugène Delacroix’s decoration of the central ceiling cartouche in the Apollo Gallery (1849) and Georges Braque’s painting of the Henri II Gallery ceiling (1953). The Louvre’s devotion to contemporary art also extends into the realm of architecture, such as with I.M. Pei’s Pyramid (1989).

Keeping with this practice, the Louvre has recently commissioned new work in fine art, music, dance, cinema, and literature. Most notably, Anselm Kiefer was commissioned to create a permanent installation to be unveiled this fall. By 2010, two more commissions by Cy Twombly and François Morellet will be completed.

1. Visual Art

Past Exhibitions and Ongoing Commissions

In 2003 the Louvre initiated a new dialogue between the art of today and its permanent collection, inviting artists Christian Boltanski, Gary Hill, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Tunga, Huang Yong Ping, Bertrand Lavier, Cameron Jamie, Mike Kelley, Sarkis, Anish Kapoor, Giuseppe Penone, and Luciando Fabro to create work inspired by the museum and its collections. This series of exhibitions, titled Counterpoints, has established a connection and new resonance between ancient art and contemporary creation. It has also permitted the public to rediscover less-frequented areas of the museum, such as the decorative arts, sculpture, and oriental antiquities galleries.

Each year, the Louvre invites contemporary photographers, including Patrick Faigenbaum, Jean-Luc Moulène and Candida Höfer, to photograph the Louvre and its collections. Their work is presented in the gallery dedicated to the history of the Louvre. This fall Christian Milovanoff, an internationally recognized artist and professor at the National School of Photography at Arles, will present photographs in bas-relief of Iranian and Mesopotamian antiquities. Milovanoff attempts to find a new vision, both
didactic and artistic, of these ancient works of art.

Further, the Louvre has welcomed the International Contemporary Art Fair in the Court Carrée and the Tuileries Garden since 2006. Hosting this leading contemporary art fair exemplifies the Louvre’s continued commitment to discussion and relationship between old and new.

Upcoming Work

On October 25, 2007, the Louvre will unveil a monumental painting commissioned from Anselm Kiefer. It is the first such installation commissioned since Georges Braque’s contribution more than fifty years ago. Kiefer’s painting is located in the staircase designed by the architects Percier and Fontaine at the beginning of the 19th century, to the North of the Perrault colonnade. The completion of this ambitious project will be celebrated through a month-long series of events organized around Kiefer’s chosen theme, “Frontiers.” The events will span a number of disciplines, including literature, contemporary music, dance, science, philosophy, and art history. “Frontiers” will also be explored in a specially created work by choreographer Bill T. Jones, and in an exhibition of drawings from the permanent collection curated by Kiefer.

In the spring of 2008, the museum will give “carte blanche” to the Belgium artist Jan Fabre. Enfant terrible of the Flemish New Wave movement in the 1980s, he is an artist who works with an incredible sense of liberty. Within the galleries dedicated to paintings from the Northern Schools, visitors will be invited to rediscover the master works of Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Bosch, Metsys, and Rubens through Fabre’s multifaceted interpretation, which includes sculptures, drawings, videos, and
installations. Additionally, Fabre has been invited to the Louvre’s Auditorium to showcase his genius as a multi-disciplinary artist, dancer, choreographer, actor, and director.

2. Music and Dance

The 2007-2009 seasons will bring an unprecedented number of original performing arts commissions to the Louvre.

In November 2007 a new concert series, Oeuvre, will feature new music commissioned by the Louvre. The series features established and emerging composers from around the world, including works by Frédéric Pattar, Jörg Widmann, Matthias Pintscher, Philippe Manoury, Oscar Strasnoy, and Bruno Mantovani.

Later in the year, French musician and singer Arthur H., and DJs Laurent Garnier and Vincent Ségal,
have been invited to perform “Duos Ephémères,” a program of short silent films accompanied by semiimprovised music. Through the unusual pairing of contemporary music and silent cinema, these performances offer an exciting new approach to art.

Contemporary dance at the Louvre will be celebrated though the original choreography of Bill T. Jones’ “Walking the Line.” Anselm Kiefer has invited Jones to create this unique solo dance piece as part of the “Frontiers” series. The work will be presented in the Louvre’s Michealangelo and Daru Galleries. Jones’ performance will be accompanied by singer Yunchen Lhamo, percussionist Florent Jodelet, and light artist Robert Wierzel.

3. Film

Playing the role of co-producer, the Louvre lends contemporary filmmakers its collections and grounds to serve as the subject and setting for new art. Enticed by the unique inspiration the Louvre offers, renowned Taiwanese director Tsaï Ming Liang is collaborating with the museum on the full-length movie, Salomé.

Liang explains:

“My film pays homage to the profession of acting and, to do this, I have chosen personalities from various backgrounds to reflect the multiplicity and infinite diversity of the world of cinema: Jean-Pierre Léaud, from the French New Wave movement, an actor that influenced an entire generation of actors and audiences; Maggie Cheung, emblematic figure of the Hong Kong cinema, whose name has already graced movie screens across the globe; Lee Kang-Sheng, a young Taiwanese screenwriter with whom I regularly work; and the fourth and last personality will be the Louvre itself, with the different faces and bodies of the works of art that respond to one another here and there, either through similarities or contrasts.”

4. Literature

Twice a year, the Louvre invites six authors to use a work of art in the museum as inspiration for new fiction, and then present a reading of their creations at the Louvre. Once focused on well-known French writers, the program now includes authors from around the world who write and present in their native languages.

The most recent set of commissions will be presented through readings this October. Marie Darrieussescq was inspired by a Roman statue, Frédéric Boyer chose Hammurabi’s Code for his story, Agnès Desarthe selected Paulus Potter’s The Piebald Horse, Charles Dantzig focused on Van Dyck’s Portrait of the Prince Palatins, Lydie Salvayre wrote about a Virgin and Child by Filipo Lipi—and Gérard Massé derived inspiration from several canvases which he will keep secret until the very end.

Some of the writers invited to participate in 2008 are Linda Lê, Camille Laurens, Jean Rollin, and Emmanuel Carrère.