The Louvre

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Louvre's Posh Garden Clogged With Rats

Animal lovers aren't exactly helping matters

(Newser) - Rats are on the rampage in the elegant garden of the Louvre Museum, so bold they romp onto the grass in broad daylight, defying sanitation workers and scaring tourists visiting the site. The hot weather in Paris has brought out many picnicking visitors, whose garbage left in the garden is...

Louvre Closes It Doors Over Pickpockets

Staff weary of thieves who rob them—and spit, too

(Newser) - Today, the Louvre is open, a fact that is remarkable only because yesterday the museum wasn't. Some 200 workers refused to do their jobs yesterday as a protest against pickpockets, who they say have aggressively been hitting both visitors and staff. The Guardian reports that they're not imagining...

9/11 Truther Defaces Iconic Louvre Painting

'Liberty Leading the People' said to have inspired Statue of Liberty

(Newser) - A 28-year-old woman has been arrested after museum guards caught her scribbling graffiti on an iconic Eugene Delacroix painting at the newly-opened Louvre branch in Lens, France. The 1830 painting, dubbed "Liberty Leading the People," was featured on France's pre-euro 100-franc note, and reportedly inspired the Statue...

At Louvre, a Brawl Over a da Vinci

Some argue Leonardo's masterpiece was 'overcleaned'

(Newser) - Who knew art historians could duke it out like this? The Louvre finds itself embroiled in a big brouhaha regarding its recent restoration of a Leonardo da Vinci painting. Two of France's preeminent art experts, who sit on the museum's 20-person committee tasked with overseeing art restoration, have...

Louvre Begs for Painting Cash
 Louvre Begs for Painting Cash 
Nov 18, 2010 2:59 AM CST

Louvre Begs for Painting Cash

Public urged to help keep national treasure in France

(Newser) - For the first time in its 217-year history, the Louvre is asking the French public to help it buy a painting—and the French aren't happy about. The museum is a million euros short of the 4 million it needs to buy the 16th-century oil painting Three Graces, and it...

Carla Bruni Blamed for Axing Louvre Rock Concert

First lady blamed after officials ban museum gig

(Newser) - Plans for the Louvre to host the first rock concert in its 800-year history have been axed, and the French press believes Carla Bruni is responsible. France's culture minister told organizers—who had already won approval to hold the concert in the museum's courtyard—that the event was "unsuitable....

Strikes Shut Paris Museums
 Strikes Shut 
 Paris Museums 
Dec 3, 2009 4:05 AM CST

Strikes Shut Paris Museums

Workers protesting job cuts

(Newser) - Strikes protesting job cuts have shut down the major museums of Paris as well as churches and monuments—just as tourists are beginning to head to the City of Light for the winter holidays. The action began with a 10-day strike at the Pompidou Center, followed by walkouts at the...

China To Scour Museums for Looted Art

Artifact team will hunt for Imperial Gardens booty

(Newser) - China is about to send teams of artifact hunters to the world's top museums to track down looted art treasures. They'll be on the lookout for art from the splendid Imperial Gardens of Yuan Ming Yuan, more commonly known as the Old Summer Palace, which was used by Chinese emperors...

Zut Alors! French Attack Big Macs at Louvre

Wake up and smell the French fries, Mona Lisa

(Newser) - News that a McDonald's will open just yards from the entrance of the Louvre museum has sent lovers of French culture into conniptions. “This is the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odors in the context of a museum,” sniffed one art historian who works...

Missing Picasso Found in Iraq?! Probably Not.

The Naked Woman likely not missing, nor a Picasso, say experts

(Newser) - Iraqi security forces have secured a purported Pablo Picasso painting believed stolen from a Kuwaiti museum during the 1990 invasion, the Times of London reports. Only it’s probably not a Picasso. “It bears absolutely no relation to any Picasso that I can think of,” says one expert....

Angry Russian Hurls Cup at Mona Lisa

Really, really miffed that she was denied citizenship

(Newser) - A Russian woman distressed that France had refused to grant her nationality took out her frustration on a defenseless national treasure, Reuters reports. “The woman threw an empty cup at the Mona Lisa, but there was no damage as the cup smashed when it hit the screen protecting the...

First Family Lives It Up in Paris

Sasha and Malia make their first trip to Europe

(Newser) - Barack Obama's whirlwind trip overseas ended with family time in Paris, as Michelle, the first daughters, and their grandmother joined him for a weekend on the town. It was the girls' first trip to Europe. They wrapped up the action-packed weekend on Sunday with a trip to the Centre Pompidou,...

Louvre May Have Found New Leonardo Sketches

Three drawings found on back of painting

(Newser) - Curators from the Louvre have discovered three sketches on the back of Leonardo da Vinci’s oil painting "Virgin And Child With St Anne" that may be by the master himself, the AFP reports. Museum workers noticed two barely visible sketches, of a horse’s head and a human...

Easter Island Statue Plans Paris Pilgrimage

'Moai' aims to change humanity's 'materialistic conscience': government

(Newser) - A “moai”—one of the giant statues of elongated heads on Easter Island—will travel to Paris in 2010 on a mission to challenge the “materialistic conscience” of the world, the Independent reports. Representatives of the Pacific island’s government said the statue had made its wish...

Gee, Beav, Sculpture by Wally at the Louvre

(Newser) - Eat your heart out, Eddie Haskell. Tony Dow, best known as the actor who portrayed the Beav's big brother, Wally, in the '50s TV series Leave It to Beaver, will have one of his abstract sculptures on display at the Louvre. Several sculptors from the Karen Lynne Gallery, including Dow,...

Jackie's Charm Sparked US Visit by Mona Lisa

First lady persuaded French to loan painting, boost our culture

(Newser) - Jackie Kennedy executed a diplomatic coup in 1962, when she convinced the smitten French culture minister to send the Mona Lisa on a perilous journey. The painting's visit to the US—"then regarded as a country with hardly any culture at all," in the words of one historian—...

Ambitious Director Revives the Louvre

Henri Loyrette has global ambitions that grate traditionalists

(Newser) - France's publicly funded museums once eschewed the big-money efforts that are common in American art institutions. Not anymore. BusinessWeek profiles Henri Loyrette, the ambitious director of the Louvre in Paris, who has coaxed major corporations to pony up cash, rented out its galleries for the filming of The Da Vinci ...

Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize
 Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize 
Mar 31, 2008 2:45 AM CDT

Jean Nouvel Wins Pritzker Prize

Pritzker jury praises Guthrie designer Jean Nouvel's 'inquisitive mind'

(Newser) - The French designer of the Arab World Institute in Paris and Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater has won architecture's top award, the Pritzker Prize, reports the New York Times. Jean Nouvel’s projects "greatly expanded the vocabulary of contemporary architecture,” the Pritzker jury noted. “His inquisitive and agile mind...

France Will Offer Free Museums
France Will Offer Free Museums
Oct 24, 2007 7:22 PM CDT

France Will Offer Free Museums

Culture ministry scraps entry fees in pilot program

(Newser) - Wandering leisurely through one French museum after another—priceless, right? Exactly, as of January 1, when the French culture ministry opens 14 of the country's museums to visitors free of charge. The pilot program, a campaign plank for Nicolas Sarkozy, is being greeted skeptically as columnists debate whether the policy...

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