The Art Treasures of the Louvre

Every day millions of tourists — lovers of art and sightseers — visit the “Louvre” museum, and its fame is heightened by the presence of the two magnificent pieces of art, the “Mona Lisa” and the “Venus de Milo,” besides its great size, its wealth of art collections, and the age of its building, which contains various paintings by the most famous artists of the world, ancient and modern.

Eastern treasures have an ample place in the museum, and we also find there the most precious jewel in the world, the “Regent” diamond, and remnants of France's grandeur, from “Napoleon's” crown to the spur of “Charlemagne's” horse, and from the woolen hat of “Corot” to the hat of Napoleon III.

Despite the repairs and the innovations made to ease movement inside the museum, the visitor is still obliged to go on foot and climb stairways. Whoever wishes to enjoy the sight of the “Venus de Milo” must descend a staircase leading him to a long corridor; then he climbs stairs and crosses three rooms to see the “Mona Lisa.” And if any vigor remains in his legs, he continues his journey to another wing.

This stillness that reigns over the museum today makes you forget what the Louvre was seven hundred years ago. Even its name, it is said, is taken from the French word Loup, meaning wolf, and the legend goes further still, adding that its site was a ground for wolf-hunting in the Middle Ages.

A hundred and fifty years ago the “Louvre” became a museum, having been in the twelfth century a storehouse for money and precious objects; its situation, built as a fortress, led the kings to store their most precious possessions in it, and to lodge their prisoners there. In the fourteenth century King Charles V turned the fortress into a royal residence, after restoring it and repairing its gardens; then he gathered into it jewels and precious books, which soon disappeared in 1415, after the English entered it in their victory over the French at the battle of “Agincourt.” And when Francis I ascended the throne in 1515, he ordered a great part of the Louvre demolished, and this stirred the resentment of the French; one of them wrote: “O impregnable fortress! How it has been torn down — it was in truth the most secure prison in France.” But Francis I gathered artists to restore the museum's splendor, and that was the first nucleus, with four paintings by “Leonardo,” among them the “Mona Lisa,” and six paintings by “Raphael.” The “Louvre” afterwards became the seat of royal banquets, and a ballroom, and a church; Mary Stuart, later queen of “Scotland,” was wedded in it, and it turned into an altar upon which the “Huguenots” were slaughtered when they tried to flee through it, leaving their traces in letters of blood staining its walls.

When Louis XIV came to the throne, he took an interest in the wing containing the works of art and gave over the rest to the Parisians; and it remained a refuge for criminals and a market of trade until after the Revolution, when the government made it a public museum. It quickly filled from the conquests whose spoils Napoleon carried home from Italy, gathering everything precious in Europe; but the museum lost part of its wealth again after the battle of “Waterloo,” when Napoleon was broken and the Allies descended upon it, recovering some of what it had cost them.

There is nothing worth mentioning after that date until the Franco-Prussian War, when the great “Gallery” was turned into an arms factory. Then the “Louvre” was burned after that, but a great part of its wealth was saved, and peace hovered over it until the two World Wars, when the paintings were removed to be placed out of danger's reach.