The Louvre in Paris, France

On my family's visit to the Louvre, the amount of art in the museum was amazing. The art ranges from French sculpture art to modern art, and there is much more. The Louvre was established in 1792, and it is one of the world's largest museums, and a historic monument. The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, is housed behind bulletproof glass, and surrounded by guards, to prevent it from being stolen. There are other famous paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci, such as the Last Supper, which is his only surviving mural. 

(The Deer and the Hunter) -Emilio Galo

Before the Louvre became a museum, it had been around since the 12th century, when it was a palace to kings and queens residing in Paris. During the French Revolution, the art that belonged to King Louis was put into safe keeping, to prevent it from being destroyed by vandals. It is one of the special collections from that time. There are some remaining sections from the castles original foundation in the mall surrounding the Louvre. During Napoleons time in Paris, he had an addition built on to the palace, which was known as the Napoleon Apartments. The rooms were grand, and Napoleon's throne room was in one of the many rooms. His bed was so small that he forbade anyone to see it, including his wife.

Hercules Battling the Hydra-(Li Galo)

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 According to History Channel: 
One hundred and thirty years later, as another grand army swept across Europe (this time in the direction of France), conservators at the Louvre began to hastily prepare for the evacuation of tens of thousands of pieces of art. The first to go: The Mona Lisa, followed quickly by every valuable (or moveable) work. A caravan of more than three dozen trucks headed into the French countryside, shepherding the priceless works to safety in a series of private chateaus. After the German occupation of Paris, Nazi officials ordered the Louvre to reopen. It was an empty gesture, literally: The barren walls and ghostly corridors were now home only to those sculptures that had been too difficult to move (and even those that remained had been covered up by heavy burlap bags).

The Napoleon Apartments-(Emilio Galo)

With no artwork to display, the Nazis decided to commandeer part of the museum as a clearinghouse to catalogue, package and ship art and personal items confiscated from wealthy French (primarily Jewish) families back to Germany. Known as the Louvre sequestration, it eventually took over six massive rooms in the museum, but it wasn’t the largest art theft operation in Paris during World War II. Under the command of Herman Goering, the nearby Jeu de Paume museum processed thousands of confiscated masterpieces. Many of them were earmarked for the personal collections of the Nazi high command, while those works deemed morally degenerate (including works by Picasso and Salvador Dalí) were sold to non-German collectors, or eventually burned in a pubic bonfire at the Jeu de Paume in 1942. Thanks to an intrepid curator who served as a double agent during the plundering, many of the pieces that passed through the Jeu de Paume were eventually recovered. The Louvre, which had resisted working with the Nazis, was less successful in repatriating its lost artwork. More than 70 years after the Nazis marched into Paris, the museum continues to come under fire for its role in the greatest cultural theft in history and its reluctance to return contested artwork.

This museum is a must see if you are travelling to Paris for a  few days, and you will enjoy the art that is in the museum, and the experience will be remembered for a lifetime.

-Emilio Galo

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