Louvre Museum
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Entrances to the museum - Pyramid and Galerie du Carrousel entrances: open every day (except Tuesday) from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays; and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays. - Passage Richelieu entrance: open every day (except Tuesday) from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays)
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Days and times of tours Groups can visit the museum every day during opening hours, except: - public holidays - the first Sunday of each month from October to March - July 14 (French national holiday) Tour departure times: - Wednesday and Friday: 9 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. - Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except the first Sunday of each month from October to March and July 14 (national holiday)
Louvre » Cafes & Restaurants • There are no fewer than 15 cafés, restaurants and takeaway outlets located throughout the Louvre, and the Carrousel and Tuileries gardens, offering both table service and take-away food.
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Bookstores & Shopping There are several bookstores and gift shops in and around the Louvre. They offer a wide range of guides, books, and art books, together with art objects, replicas, and merchandise related to temporary exhibitions and French national collections, particularly those of the Louvre. Visitors will find guides to accompany their visit and souvenirs of their time at the museum.
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The Louvre is open every day (except Tuesday) from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Night opening until 9:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays
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Closed on the following holidays: January 1, May 1,December 25
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Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris - France Métro: Palais-Royal Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7) Tel.: +33 (0)1 40 20 53 17 Metro: Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre station (line 1). Bus: the following bus lines stop in front of the Pyramid: 21, 24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81, 95, and the Paris Open Tour bus. No. 1013: 186 rue Saint-Honoré
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Car: an underground parking garage is available for those coming by car. The entrance is located on avenue du Général Lemonnier. It is open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Batobus: get off at the Louvre stop, quai François Mitterrand. From Orly Airport: take the RER C train, direction Champs de Mars-Tour Eiffel, and get off at Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame. Walk to the place SaintMichel and take bus no. 27, direction Saint-Lazare. Get off at the Louvre, in front of the Pyramid. From Charles de Gaulle Airport: take the RER B train, direction MassyPalaiseau, and change at Châtelet-les-Halles to line 14, direction SaintLazare. Get off at Pyramides station and walk to the Louvre from there (3 minutes). Alternatively, take Métro line 1 at Châtelet-les-Halles, and get off at Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre. Vélib' stations (bicycle sharing system): No. 1015: 2 place A. Malraux No. 1023: 165 rue Saint-Honoré No. 1014: 5 rue de l’Echelle
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Information map • available in thirteen languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish • for visitors with mobility impairments, a version of this map showing wheelchair accesses, elevators and lifts is available in French and English • all of the practical information you need to visit the museum and understand the layout of the collections • available for download here: louvre.fr/en/plan
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Collections & departmentsDepartment of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities • The Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities is home to a collection of artworks representing the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman civilizations; it illustrates the art of a vast area encompassing Greece, Italy, and the whole of the Mediterranean basin, and spans the period from Neolithic times (4th millennium BC) to the 6th century AD.
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Situated between the two great rivers, largely in what is now Iraq, Mesopotamia was the cradle of modern economics and of the writing with which history began. It was also home to the first cities and the oldest known political and administrative systems. Our present-day cities, living environment, beliefs, and imaginative ethos might be very different from those of ancient Mesopotamia, but they remain the legacy of those fundamental “firsts” of its civilization. This is the world, at once close and at a distant remove, that the exhibition will present in the form of major artworks and newly discovered testimony to the Mesopotamia of the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC. The aim is to demonstrate the foundational importance of this world heritage, partially known to us through the Bible and rediscovered by 19th-century archaeological ventures: a heritage now under threat from the tragic situation in Iraq and the Middle East.
Louvre Between 1824 and 1827, a department was created with the arrival of entire collections (nine thousand works). From 1852 to 1868, the works gathered by European collectors who had pursued careers in Egypt were also added to the rooms. These included the collections of Dr. Clot, Count Tyszkiewicz, and the French consul Delaporte. Many of these works (a gold bowl, a mummified cat) are extraordinary, even though their provenance generally remains unknown. The Louvre sent French archaeologist Mariette to Egypt, where he discovered the Serapeum at Saqqara. Between 1852 and 1853, he sent 5,964 works to Paris, including the famous Seated Scribe. He became the first director of Egyptian Antiquities and protected the sites from pillagers. There followed an era during which Western museums shared objects unearthed at archaeological sites directed by scientists on concessions attributed by the Egyptian government, notably for the excavations of Abu Roash, Assiut, Bawit, Medamud, Tod, and Deir el-Medina.
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Selected WorksJewelry This selection features the most beautiful ornaments and jewels in the Musée du Louvre collections. Crown jewels, fibulae, bracelets, necklaces and rings illustrate the strong tastes for jewelry, gold and silver ware of contemporaries through the ages.
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This selection demonstrates the growing importance of landscape in art since ancient times. By the seventeenth century, landscape art had become a genre in its own right, in which Claude Lorrain, Hubert Robert, Canaletto and other talented artists excelled.
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How has the art of portraiture evolved over the years? Explore portraiture through the ages with sculptures and paintings of emblematic figures such as Caesar and Napoleon, or simply private individuals.
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Major Events in History Relive key moments in the history of humanity through the collections of the Musée du Louvre! From the entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon to the proclamation of the French Republic, these dramatic moments have become a source of inspiration to many artists.
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Selected WorksThe French Revolution Relive the French Revolution and meet its most fascinating characters through the Louvre’s collections. Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI, Marat and the Bastille all stand as symbols of an era that bore witness to the end of the Ancien Régime and the advent of the Republic.
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Masterpieces Artworks essential to history and the history of art, masterpieces bear witness to the wealth of the Louvre’s collections and the wide range of artistic practices used around the world and through the ages.
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History of the Louvre From château to museum A visit to the Louvre and its collections lets visitors discover Western art from the Middle Ages to 1848, as well as a large number of ancient civilizations. Yet it also offers another history to explore. The grand palace that houses the museum, which dates back to the late twelfth century, is a true lesson in architecture: from 1200 to 2011, the most innovative architects have in turn built and developed the Louvre. Long the seat of power, this royal residence was also home to French heads of state until 1870 and is one of the major backdrops to the history of Paris and of France.