Louvre Museum to showcase Indian art

The world’s most visited art museum is knocking on India’s doors. For the past couple of days head honchos of the Louvre Museum in Paris have been in Delhi and Mumbai in search of a partner for the museum’s maiden voyage to India.

The world’s most visited art museum is knocking on India’s doors. For the past couple of days head honchos of the Louvre Museum in Paris have been in Delhi and Mumbai in search of a partner for the museum’s maiden voyage to India.



"France is looking at India and Indian art with great interest. Also, last year we had 1,00,000 Indian visitors at the Louvre, so we feel it’s our duty to do something here as well. We don’t want do a one-off exhibition but something more sustained. A platform where we can share art and learning," says Henri Loyrette, the president of Louvre Museum.

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While here, Loyrette visited the National Gallery of Modern Art, the National Museum and reportedly met with industrialists such as the Ambanis, the Mittals, union minister of culture, Kumari Selja, and others. "The right partner and the right institution is very important before we can see how to take it forward," he says.



Louvre’s upcoming venture — Louvre Abu Dhabi — opens in 2014, and Loyrette hopes Indian art will play a key role in the new musuem. "By which time, 2014, we should be ready with our Indian venture too," he says.



The world’s number 1 museum

Home to Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa, Musée du Louvre in Paris, is the world’s most visited museum. In 2010, 8.5 million people visited the museum and it was ranked the world’s number one museum by the World Trade Organisation. The museum which opened in 1793 with 537 pieces of art, today has over 35,000 objects from pre-history to the 19th century.