The Louvre in Paris is showcasing 300 rarely displayed photographs in an exhibition entitled “Louvre Photo” running from November 4 to May 3, 2027.
The images feature artworks, exhibition galleries, visitors both famous and anonymous, museum workers, hidden nooks and restricted corridors.
From the very first photograph of the Paris museum, taken by Louis Jacques Daguerre in 1839, to contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, “Louvre Photo” spans different eras, presenting “an endless array of images of this place, which is a world unto itself,” according to the museum’s director Christophe Leribault.
The exhibition, which opens Wednesday, flits between glittering highlights, such as The Beatles visiting the Louvre and Sophia Loren photographed posing in front of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. and historic moments, such as a photo documenting German prisoners gathered in the Louvre courtyard on August 25, 1944, during the historic Liberation of Paris. Another shows Queen Elizabeth II and French President François Mitterrand during their visit to the iconic Salle des Caryatides in 1992.
The exhibition also offers a glimpse of a radiology laboratory located in the museum’s attic, the excavations of the gallery of the Venus de Milo in the 1880s, the damage sustained by the museum during the Paris Commune of 1871, and the demolition of the Grand Gallery in 1865.
Also on display are postcards addressed to Pablo Picasso that feature reproductions of famous works from the Louvre.
The exhibition will show a selection of photos taken by visitors, reflecting the hundreds of thousands of photos and selfies of the Louvre, which welcomes around 9 million visitors each year.
