Musée du Louvre de l’Impérialisme
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Lots of really great stolen stuff at the Louvre in Paris. They should rename the museum Musée du Louvre de l’Impérialisme. The museum is a former palace built on top of an old castle that was built on top of a medieval fortress. In the basement you can see the original stone fortifications.
Everything is part of the exhibitions, including the ceilings.
Most of the exhibits are things stolen by the French.
During the U.S. invasion of Iraq, people worried that major archeological artifacts would be damaged. There was no need to worry. They were stolen a long time ago.
Hammurabi’s Code on a stylus, a clay tablet, written in cuneiform, and a French translation.
Pillar from the castle of Darius in Persia.
Sphinx from Egypt. The British stole the Rosetta Syone from the French but missed this.
From ancient Greece, statues of warriors and wrestlers.
Two of the most famous Greek works in the Louvre are statues of the Venus de Milo, which was created between 150 and 125 BC, and Winged Victory of Samothrace, dating from the beginning of the 2nd century BC.
These two Italian medieval Madonnas were interesting.
Michelangelo created two statues of enslaved Greeks and during another Italian sculptor created a statue of an enslaved African.
And, of course, there is Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, also from Italy.
They do have some French stuff.
Jacques-Louis David’s 1807 “The Coronation of Napoleon.”
“Liberty Leading the People” by Delacroix celebrates the 1830 Revolution.
