In October 2019, the Louvre opened an unprecedented exhibition of works by Leonardo da Vinci. The show marked 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master and it was the largest-ever collection of his works brought together in one place. After more than ten years of research and planning, the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition offered an exhaustive catalogue of da Vinci’s oeuvre and set a record for attendance. One excluded painting, though, is a problematic footnote.

The Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, with about 10 million visitors each year, and the largest, displaying about 35,000 pieces from its collection of more than 480,000 works of art. Among them all, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the most famous, seen by about 8 million each year. While La Joconde, as she is called in French, is the superlative, the Louvre owns four other paintings by da Vinci – a third of the 15 or so major works attributed to him – and 22 of his drawings.

For the 2019 exhibition, the Louvre borrowed paintings, drawings, and manuscripts from the Hermitage, the Met, the Royal Collection, the Vatican Museums, and others that rarely lend such works. The catalogue included 179 entries, with at least nine paintings and 80 drawings by da Vinci, as well as works by followers including Andrea del Verrocchio, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, and Marco d’Oggiono.

The Mona Lisa was not included in the exhibition – the painting is permanently installed in the Louvre’s largest room, the Salle des États, which has some 30,000 visitors each day. The temporary exhibition, in the Hall Napoléon, was expected to accommodate only about 7,000 visitors each day, but was seen by more than a million people over its 104-day run, setting an attendance record and culminating in a non-stop opening for 81 hours during the final weekend.

When we visited in February 2020, The Vitruvian Man was not on view. The archetypal drawing that represents mathematical proportions of the human body is owned by the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, where it is typically shown only once every six years due to its fragility and sensitivity to light. The Louvre’s request to borrow the work was first approved, then challenged in court by the conservation group Italia Nostra, but ultimately sent to Paris as part of an exchange agreement signed by the culture ministers of Italy and France which allowed the drawing to be shown during the exhibition’s first eight weeks from October to December 2019.

Also missing from the exhibition was a version of The Virgin of the Rocks, the name of two paintings of the same subject, one belonging to the Louvre and the other to the National Gallery in London. The Louvre’s painting is the earlier of the two, unrestored, and attributed entirely to da Vinci. The National Gallery’s version was considered to have been painted by assistants, until 2010 when restoration work revealed details that led curators to conclude it had been painted by da Vinci. The attribution is not universally accepted, and in any case, the painting remained in London to be the centerpiece of a simultaneous exhibition there.

The work most conspicuously absent from the exhibition, the Salvator Mundi, is more disputed than the attribution of The Virgin of the Rocks; more complicated than the loan of The Vitruvian Man; and maybe, briefly, almost as famous as the Mona Lisa.

Whereas other major works by Leonardo da Vinci are well established with provenance – chronology of ownership and documentation that help determine the authenticity of a work of art – the Salvator Mundi has no certain history. Art dealers Alexander Parrish and Robert Simon purchased the painting, labeled “after Leonardo,” from an auction in New Orleans in 2005. It had been in private collections since around 1900, but its location before that is unknown. They paid $1,500, on speculation that it could be a long-lost master work, and commissioned a restoration of the badly damaged painting.

The work’s conservator, Dianne Modestini, a faculty member at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, was the first to claim that the Salvator Mundi painting was a da Vinci. In removing previous overpainting she discovered pentimenti and sfumato effects that she compared to the Mona Lisa, and subsequently carried out a restoration process that painted over nearly the entire panel.

The original work is thought to have been painted around 1500, but most of what we see today was painted by Modestini after 2006. According to Frank Zöllner, an expert on da Vinci and faculty member at Universität Leipzig, “You have the old parts of the painting which are original – these are by pupils – and the new parts of the painting, which look like Leonardo, but they are by the restorer. In some part it’s a masterpiece by Dianne Modestini.”

In 2011, notwithstanding its provenance and heavy restoration, and without consensus, the Salvator Mundi was included in an exhibition at the National Gallery in London as an “autograph” work, achieving attribution. In 2013 the Swiss art dealer and freeport developer Yves Bouvier purchased the painting from Parrish, Simon, and a third partner for $83 million, then sold it to the Russian billionaire oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. In 2017, after a marketing tour de force, Christie’s sold the painting at auction for a record $450 million.

News about the most expensive painting ever sold became speculation about the buyer – it was Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – which became speculation about where it would be seen again. It was expected for some time that the work would be a gift for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which had just opened, as a diplomatic gesture between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The painting didn’t appear there, however, and Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism refused to discuss it.

Speculation about the painting’s whereabouts and potential future exhibition shifted in early 2018 when French President Emmanuel Macron hosted bin Salman for a private tour at the Louvre. The visit coincided with negotiations for France to develop museums, cultural sites, and infrastructure for Al-‘Ula, Saudi Arabia’s $20 billion project to make a cultural tourism destination, a deal which could surpass the $1 billion agreement for the Louvre Abu Dhabi and could position Saudi Arabia’s Al-‘Ula to eclipse Abu Dhabi’s investments in museums and culture at Saadiyat Island. With this, it became possible that a showing of the Salvador Mundi at the Louvre could signify France–Saudi Arabia relations surpassing the UAE, all with the soft power of art.

When the Louvre opened Léonard de Vinci in October 2019, the Salvator Mundi was not included in the exhibition, but a similar work indicates what could have been expected. Another Salvator Mundi – there are at least thirty copies or variations of the subject painted by da Vinci’s assistants and followers – known as the Ganay version was labeled as “Atelier de Léonard de Vinci,” painted by the workshop of da Vinci. Though the National Gallery had attributed the Salvator Mundi to da Vinci in 2011, the Louvre could have accepted or rejected the attribution, either of which may have been problematic for a work with questionable authenticity now owned by a Saudi prince.

In March 2020, after the exhibition had closed, it was reported that the Louvre had printed, but not released, a 45-page publication on the Salvator Mundi. The implication is that the painting was expected to be included in the exhibition, but removed at some late point. Because the Louvre’s policy not to comment on a work that it has not shown precluded any statements about the Salvator Mundi or the book’s release, the world’s most authoritative museum, which holds a majority of known paintings by da Vinci, has not weighed in on the controversial work. The mysterious painting is missing from view but may not actually even be a lost da Vinci.

The post The Lost da Vinci? appeared first on .

On November 11, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened on Saadiyat Island, a cultural district off the coast of the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The museum was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel and is the result of a €1 billion agreement between Abu Dhabi and France.

The project was announced in 2007 with a contract in which Abu Dhabi agreed to pay €400 million to use the Louvre brand name for a period of 30 years, and €574 million more for French expertise and loans. The Agence France-Muséums, which includes the Louvre and 16 other institutions, will lend up to 300 artworks during the next 10 years; develop four temporary exhibitions each year for 15 years; and provide management and support for 20 years. The deal also included a €25 million renovation of part of the Louvre’s Pavilion de l’Horologe. Beyond this €1 billion agreement, Abu Dhabi paid for the €600 million construction cost of the new museum.

Jean Nouvel, whose other cultural projects include the Fondation Cartier, Musée du quai Branly, and Philharmonie de Paris, is especially suited for the Louvre Abu Dhabi. One of his best-known works is the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, a landmark building which established a French-Arab connection with Arabic design for a modern and international cultural institution. Nouvel has also designed the National Museum of Qatar, which is expected to open next year.

The 24,000-square-meter Louvre Abu Dhabi comprises 55 individual white gallery buildings arranged as a village on an archipelago in the Persian Gulf. The entire complex is sheltered by a vast dome structure that appears to float above the cluster of museum buildings. The 180-meter dome is supported by only four columns, which are hidden within buildings to create the floating effect. The dome weighs some 7,500 tons and consists of eight layers – four outer layers of stainless steel and four inner layers of aluminum separated by a five-meter steel frame.

The dome is the project’s defining characteristic, and is inspired by cupolas and mashrabiya windows found in traditional Arabic architecture. Its complex pattern results from geometric designs that are repeated at various sizes and angles in each of the eight layers, forming 7,850 star shapes. As the sun passes through, dappled light provides an ever-changing effect named the “rain of light.” At night, the dome becomes like a constellation when it is illuminated from within.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has about 600 artworks in its own collection so far. The Agence France-Muséums has guided the acquisitions, but some early speculation was that the sheikhs might exclude nudity and non-Muslim religious art. However, a Bellini painting of the Madonna and Child, a Roman bronze of the Apollo Belvedere, and a Yemeni manuscript of the Hebrew Bible are among many works already on view that provide evidence to the contrary.

Unlike the Louvre in Paris, which does not collect, for example, American art or works created after 1850, the Louvre Abu Dhabi aims to be a universal museum with works from all places and periods, including contemporary art. Its inaugural exhibitions are described as twelve “chapters” that are curated thematically rather than by geography or chronology. Examples include Civilizations and Empires, A Modern World?, and A Global Stage, with works that range from a 2,700-year-old Grecian sphinx, to an Impressionist painting by Gustave Caillebotte, to a site-specific commissioned installation by Jenny Holzer.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the first universal museum in the Arab world, the Louvre’s first international satellite, and the first museum to open on Saadiyat Island, a $27 billion development off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The island’s planned cultural district includes the Louvre, a maritime museum designed by Tadao Ando, the Zayed National Museum designed by Norman Foster, a performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid, and a Guggenheim museum designed by Frank Gehry.

While the Guggenheim and Zayed National Museum show no signs of progress (the British Museum recently terminated its partnership with the Zayed National Museum), Saadiyat Island does have a marina, luxury resorts and residential developments, a campus for New York University, and Manarat Al Saadiyat, a gallery complex. The emirate estimates that the island will be home to 150,000 people by 2020.

The UAE is a study in modern economics, architecture, urbanization, and now cultural development. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the result of a unique international partnership described as “a new cultural beacon, bringing different cultures together to shine fresh light on the shared stories of humanity.” The museum, to say nothing of the larger ambition of Saadiyat Island, already changes perspectives and shifts the world’s cultural center of gravity further towards the East.

Louvre Abu Dhabi from The Art Newspaper.

The post Louvre Abu Dhabi appeared first on .

In Paris, the iconic pyramid that serves as the main entrance to the Musée du Louvre seems to have temporarily disappeared. The illusion is the result of an anamorphic installation by the street artist JR.

JR is a French photographer and graffiti artist known for large photo installations in public places, typically as a form of activism or social critique. His Portrait of a Generation project documented residents of Paris suburbs during the 2005 riots. The first exhibition was illegally flyposted, but was later made official with an installation at Paris’ Hôtel de Ville. Subsequently, JR has developed several ongoing projects and dozens of international exhibitions.

At the Louvre, JR continues Unframed, a project that reinterprets archival images expanded onto buildings. He has covered the west side of the Pyramide du Louvre with a historical image of the Pavilion Sully behind it. From a viewpoint in the Cour Napoléon, the image covering the 70-foot pyramid aligns into an anamorphosis – a distortion of perspective – so that the pyramid disappears against the historic façade. The clever intervention may reignite a perennial debate on modernism and architecture in Paris.

The metal and glass pyramid became the main entrance to the museum in 1989 as part of a massive project, commissioned by François Mitterrand and designed by I.M. Pei, to renovate the Louvre and expand its capacity. The pyramid was incredibly controversial at the time, inspiring every kind of criticism before it was even built. A 1985 article in the New York Times labeled it “an architectural joke, an eyesore, an anachronistic intrusion of Egyptian death symbolism in the middle of Paris, and a megalomaniacal folly.” Ouch. It has, however, become one of the city’s most photographed monuments. Le Figaro reports that it is the Louvre’s third most popular work after the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

This is the first of JR’s public projects without portraits, but it does not preclude the interaction of people. In order to photograph the pyramid, or the illusion of no pyramid, visitors must observe and move around it. A particular spot in the Cour Napoléon now replicates the Salle des États, where selfie-taking tourists crowd to photograph the Louvre’s most popular artwork. This an active and participatory experience, or at least the Instagram hit of the summer.

JR au Louvre opened on May 25 and continues through June 27, 2016.

The post JR au Louvre appeared first on .

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has been selected to construct a new storage and conservation center for the Musée du Louvre. The new facilities will be located in Liévin, 200 kilometers north of Paris near the Louvre-Lens. The center is expected to open in 2018, and moving the collections will take until 2023.

Collections at Risk

The Musée du Louvre has perhaps the world’s greatest collection, with 460,000 objects dated from 4,000 BC to 1838. Some 35,000 artworks are on display in the museum. The rest are stored in underground facilities which were built with the 1980s Grand Louvre project, and in off-site facilities which are not very accessible and which cost the museum at least €3 million annually to rent.

The 250,000 objects stored under the Louvre are increasingly at risk of a flood from the Seine. The river overflowed five times in the 20^th century, including the catastrophic flood of 1910. In 2003, a flood alert preempted the Louvre and other museums to move 100,000 artworks out of Paris – the largest relocation of art since World War II.

In 2008, the French Ministry of Culture proposed a new national center for conservation, restoration, and research with storage facilities for the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, and Musée du Quai Branly. The project was planned for a site in Cergy-Pontoise, 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, but it never developed. In 2013, the Louvre launched a new proposal for facilities in Liévin, near the Louvre-Lens.

Regional Funding for the Liévin Site

The Louvre-Lens opened in 2012 (after the Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2010) with an initiative to decentralize French national cultural institutions beyond Paris. Lens was selected because it has quick TGV connections to Paris, Brussels, and London, and because the Nord-Pas-de-Calais regional government provided half the project’s €150 million budget in order to transform the former mining town into a cultural destination.

After the Louvre-Lens had 900,000 visitors in its first year, Nord-Pas-de-Calais is ready to expand its investment with the Louvre by providing 49 percent of the €60 million budget for the storage facilities in Liévin. The remaining 51 percent will be funded by Agence France-Muséums with the Louvre’s contract for the forthcoming museum in Abu Dhabi.

Opposition to the Move

The site in Liévin has support from the Ministry of Culture and both the former and current presidents of the Louvre, but otherwise there is great contention about its distance from Paris. A two-hour ride on the TGV (four hours roundtrip) will be prohibitive if not impossible for curators and researchers who assert that the museum’s scholarship and research activities will be paralyzed by the move. The art will have to travel 200 kilometers as well, by truck, which introduces costs and risks other than floods.

In October, 42 of the Louvre’s 45 curators signed a letter urging the Ministry of Culture and the museum’s president to reconsider the project. In February, 13 former curators and department heads appealed to the president of France with a letter that gained 3,000 signatures. The opposition has been well documented by La Tribune de l’Art.

RSHP Design

The project is moving forward, however, and a design was announced this month. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners is the London-based firm founded by Richard Rogers, who designed with Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini, Paris’ landmark Centre Pompidou. For the 20,000-square-meter facility in Liévin, RSHP have designed one of Europe’s largest facilities for study and research within a budget of €60 million.

The new Centre de Reserves du Musée du Louvre will be set into the natural environment, with a green landscaped roof and a glazed façade. The storage facilities, which will accommodate 250,000 artworks, will span a series of vaults across one floor. Research facilities and public spaces will face out onto the landscape to permit natural light.

RSHP will work in partnership with the landscape firm Mutabilis Paysage, technical consultants Egis Bâtiments Nord, environmental consultants Inddigo, and economists VPEAS. Construction is set to begin in 2017 and the facility will begin to receive art in late 2018.

The post Louvre to Move Collections from Paris to Liévin appeared first on .

The Comité Colbert is an association of 78 luxury brands and 14 cultural institutions to promote the concept of luxury and the French art de vivre. The group was founded in 1954 and named for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the politician who introduced economic reform under the rule of King Louis XIV and was a significant patron of literature and the arts.

The group is exclusive, with members from twelve métiers selected on criteria of international ambition and strong cultural identity, high quality standards, creativity, imagination, and ethical conduct. Members support research, education, and cultural projects with a tenet that the luxury industry is reciprocal to creativity, innovation, and national heritage.

This fall, a social campaign began with French luxury houses and cultural institutions posting cryptic messages with the hashtag #Rever2074. They also posted lexical videos with a countdown directing viewers to a website. On November 4, it was revealed that the Comité Colbert had designed the mysterious campaign to unveil a collective work entitled Rêver 2074, “Dreaming 2074: A Utopia Created by French Luxury.”

For its 60^th anniversary in 2014, the Comité Colbert had commissioned its member organizations to express a dream of the future with a short text, an image, and five words. The submissions were refined by science-fiction authors and a composer into a collective text, which imagines a utopian future of French luxury in 2074. It is fantastic and conceptual, beautifully promoting creativity and refinement. The future of luxury, dreamed by the Comité Colbert, is concerned with aesthetics as well as a manner of being. It is, bien sûr, very French!

Download Dreaming 2074 at www.dreaming2074.com

The post Dreaming 2074 appeared first on .