Ghosts at the Louvre

Like most old buildings, the Louvre has a few ghost stories.  As the former residence to the monarchs, the Palace no doubt saw its fair share of treachery and murder.  But the Louvre has not one, but two famous ghosts!  One, an Egyptian mummy called Belphegor even had a film made about him in the 1960s.  The second, Jean l’Ecorcheur, known as ‘Jack the skinner’ was a brutal henchman to the queen Catherine de Medici.  According to legend, Catherine had Jean put to death because he knew too many secrets about her.  Despite being made famous on the big screen, sightings of Belphegor are relatively rare, however tourists and Louvre staff claim to have seen ‘Jack the Skinner’ near the Tuileries gardens – even Napoleon claimed to have seen the ‘Red Man of the Tuileries’.

Mona Lisa went missing for two years

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is undoubtedly the most famous painting in the world, but the reason why may very well be because she was stolen!  La Gioconda as the painting is sometimes known has hung in the Louvre since 1804.  Before that, it was in the Royal collection since it was sold to King Francis I after Leonardo’s death.

On a summer day in August in 1911 an Italian man who worked at the Louvre took the Mona Lisa off the wall and walked out with it under his arm covered in an overall.  Vincenzo Peruggia, a member of staff at the Louvre claimed the theft was an act of patriotism.  Peruggia believed that the Mona Lisa was one of the many paintings looted from Italy by Napoleon.  He was merely returning the painting to its rightful place.

Amid the current clamour for returning looted artefacts, we might agree with Peruggia’s story, but letters were later found telling his father he was going to be rich.  After stashing the painting in a cupboard in Paris for two years, he took it to Italy where he kept it in his apartment in Florence.  Peruggia was finally caught when he contacted the Uffizi in Florence to authenticate and value the painting, they immediately contacted the police.  After a short spell in Florence, where Mona Lisa was displayed alongside several of Leonardo’s other masterpieces, she returned to Paris far more famous than when she had left!

Louvre Masterpieces saved from the Nazis

In 1940, France was defeated by Nazi Germany and Hitler rode into town like a triumphant Emperor.  Like other despots before him, he pillaged artwork and cultural heritage from the cities he invaded.  What a disappointment it must have been, when his soldiers entered the Louvre Museum and found it almost empty!  Thanks to the director of the French National Museums, Jacques Jaujard; over 4,000 pieces of precious masterpieces were removed in secret to prevent Nazi troops getting their hands on the priceless collection.

The evacuation of France’s cultural heritage was planned as war loomed in 1938.  Rural sites were chosen; chateaus and villas that were well hidden and far from strategic sites, in the hope they would evade bombing.  The Mona Lisa was the first to leave the museum on 28^th August 1939 and would be moved another five times before the end of the war.  Less than a week later, war was declared and the race was on to remove the most precious pieces.  Hundreds of crates filled with statues and decorative objects along with over 3,000 paintings were sent out into the French countryside.

Stolen Artwork in the Louvre

Thanks to the film ‘Monuments Men’, it is well-known that during the second world war, Nazi soldiers plundered Europe for artworks.  Not just from museums and galleries, but also from private homes, many of Jewish families.  It is less well known that many of these stolen treasures were stored at the Louvre.

After the war, a French commission was created to recover and return what they could.  Over 45,000 objects have been returned, but many more remain unclaimed.  In 2018 two new rooms were added to the second floor of the Richelieu wing to exhibit the paintings, in the hope of finding the original owners and returning them.  The Louvre has over 1,737 treasures that have still not found a home.

Problems with the Pyramid

The iconic glass pyramid that sits in the courtyard of the Louvre is an emblem of Paris today, its design has been copied and it is known worldwide.  Yet when the design was unveiled it caused a great deal of controversy.  Constructed entirely of glass and metal, many had the concerns that the modernist design was not in keeping with the neoclassical Louvre palace.  Some muttered about the pyramid being a symbol of death in ancient Egypt.  Many, scholars and the public alike felt that Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei had too little knowledge of the French and their cultural mindset – i.e., can’t give it to a foreigner! It was even nicknamed Pharoah Mitterrand’s pyramid, reflecting how the French felt about their president.

The strangest of all controversies, or conspiracies was that the Pyramid is a ‘sign of the beast’ as it contained 666 pieces of glass.  This rumour had already surfaced in the 1980s when Pei’s design was published, it was printed and reprinted in the papers of the time.  The theory re-emerged in 2003 in the novel and film Da Vinci Code when Dan Brown’s character, Robert Langdon emphatically announces the connection between the pyramid and the devil!  In reality, there are 673 panes of glass in the pyramid.  Conspiracy or perhaps a publicity stunt, what is undeniable is that the pyramid at the Louvre is the most famous outside of Egypt!

Rap Music meets the Louvre

The music world was stunned when Beyonce and Jay-Z released their surprise collaboration ‘Everything is Love’ in 2018.  A greater surprise for the art world was the video ‘Apes***’ which featured the famous couple standing poised in front of the Mona Lisa, reclining in a Royal pose and with dancers alongside some of the most famous pieces in the museum.  Filming in the Louvre reportedly costs a whopping $17,500, but ultimately the museum agreed to the shoot because ‘it was clear the couple and their project showed a real attachment to the museum and its beloved artworks’.  After the video’s release, the Louvre recorded the highest attendance to the museum ever seen!