The musée du Louvre 

january 2023
The Louvre, once a royal palace, bears witness to eight centuries of French history. From the time of its founding in 1793, the museum was intended to be universal. Its collections, among the finest in the world, span several thousand years and an area stretching from America to the confines of Asia.

The Louvre began as a fortress with thick defensive walls, built in 1190 during the reign of Philippe Auguste. It became a royal residence in 1364 and was modified over the centuries according to changing styles and royal preferences. The Grande Galerie was built between 1595 and 1610, during the reign of Henri IV.
In 1791, during the French Revolution, it was decreed that the Louvre should become a museum of the arts. The Muséum Central des Arts was inaugurated in 1793, and thereafter the palace was increasingly given over to the museum collections and their display to the public.
From 1981 to 1989, the Pyramid project focused on putting visitors at the heart of the museum and its collections. The Department of Islamic Art was inaugurated in 2012 and the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art was created in 2022.
The Louvre is a universal museum with nine curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Paintings; Sculptures; Decorative Arts; Prints and Drawings; Islamic Art; and now Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art. Some 33,000 works of art are on display, including world-famous masterpieces such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Seated Scribe, the Winged Bulls of Khorsabad, the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo’s Slaves, and parts of the palace, such as the Napoleon III Apartments, are works of art in their own right.
In front of the palace is the Tuileries Garden, created during the Renaissance by Catherine de’ Medici, and a few miles away, at the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, is another museum managed by the Louvre – the Musée Eugène-Delacroix, housed in the painter’s last apartment. 
 


THE MUSÉE DU LOUVRE IN KEY FIGURES

The staff
A total of 2,292 employees work at the Public Establishment of the Musée du Louvre:
- 67 curators
- 9 department directors
- 233 curatorial staff
- 1,331 reception and security staff
- 52 firemen on duty 24/7

The Musée du Louvre also includes:
- the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix (since 2004)
- the Tuileries Garden (since 2005)
- the Louvre Conservation Centre, inaugurated in 2019 in Liévin (northern France)

The collections
- More than 33,000 exhibited artworks out of nearly 500,000 (including 223,000 prints and drawings) held by the museum.
- 9 departments: Near Eastern Antiquities; Egyptian Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Decorative Arts; Sculptures; Paintings; Prints and Drawings; Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art.
- Over 3,000 artworks loaned each year to other institutions.
- Nearly 35,000 long-term loans in different French regions, equal to the number of works displayed at the Louvre.
- About 10 temporary exhibitions per year.


The palace
- 244,000 m² of flooring
- 3,000 metres of façade (total length, including courtyards)
- 72,735 m² of exhibition spaces
- 403 rooms
- 14.5 km of rooms and corridors


The pyramide
- 603 diamond-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments
- Height: 21 m
- Length at the base: 34 m
- Weight of the structure: 95 tons of steel, 105 tons of aluminum

The cour Napoléon
- Surface: 28,000 m²
- Pavement: 650,000 stones of sandstone and granite
- 7 basins, 50 water pumps
 

The visitors

7.8 million visitors in 2022, of which:
- 45% under 25 years old
- 70% foreigners (mainly from the United States and the EU countries)
- over 40% benefitted from free admission

Photos

Contacts presse

Press contacts
Jeanne Scanvic
jeanne.scanvic@louvre.fr
Mobile: + 33 (0)6 22 84 55 52

Marion Benaiteau
marion.benaiteau@louvre.fr
Mobile: +33 (0)6 88 42 52 62