3826) Louvre, National Museum and Art Gallery, Republic of France: The Monnaie de Paris (The Paris Mint) has issued a 2€ (Two Euro) Coin featuring the Museum: Date/Year of Coin issue: 2025:
Description:
Louvre, National Museum and Art Gallery of France, housed in part of a large palace in Paris that was built on the right-bank site of the 12th-century fortress of Philip Augustus. It is the world’s most-visited art museum, with a collection that spans work from ancient civilisations to the mid-19th century.
History : Louvre Museum:
The History:
In 1546 Francis I, who was a great art collector, had this old castle razed and began to build on its site another royal residence, the Louvre, which was added to by almost every subsequent French monarch.
Under Francis I, only a small portion of the present Louvre was completed, under the architect Pierre Lescot. This original section is today the southwestern part of the Cour Carrée.
In the 17th century, major additions were made to the building complex by Louis XIII and Louis XIV.
Cardinal de Richelieu, the Chief Minister of Louis XIII, acquired great works of art for the King.
Louis XIV and his minister, Cardinal Mazarin, acquired outstanding art collections, including that of Charles I of England.
A committee consisting of the architects Claude Perrault and Louis Le Vau and the decorator and painter Charles Le Brun planned that part of the Louvre which is known as the Colonnade.
The Louvre ceased to be a royal residence when Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles in 1682.
The idea of using the Louvre as a public museum originated in the 18th century. The comte d’Angiviller helped build and plan the Grande Galerie and continued to acquire major works of art.
In 1793 the revolutionary government opened to the public the Musée Central des Arts in the Grande Galerie.
Under Napoleon the Cour Carrée and a wing on the north along the rue de Rivoli were begun. In the 19th century two major wings, their galleries and pavilions extending west, were completed, and Napoleon III was responsible for the exhibition that opened them. The completed Louvre was a vast complex of buildings forming two main quadrilaterals and enclosing two large courtyards.
The Louvre building complex underwent a major remodelling in the 1980s and ’90s in order to make the old museum more accessible and accommodating to its visitors.
To this end, a vast underground complex of offices, shops, exhibition spaces, storage areas, and parking areas, as well as an auditorium, a tourist bus depot, and a cafeteria, was constructed underneath the Louvre’s central courtyards of the Cour Napoléon and the Cour du Carrousel.
The ground-level entrance to this complex was situated in the centre of the Cour Napoléon and was crowned by a controversial steel-and-glass pyramid designed by the American architect I.M. Pei.
The underground complex of support facilities and public amenities was opened in 1989.
In 1993, on the museum’s 200th anniversary, the rebuilt Richelieu wing, formerly occupied by France’s Ministry of Finance, was opened; for the first time, the entire Louvre was devoted to museum purposes.
The new wing, also designed by Pei, had more than 230,000 square feet (21,368 square metres) of exhibition space, originally housing collections of European painting, decorative arts, and Islamic art.
Three glass-roofed interior courtyards displayed French sculpture and ancient Assyrian artworks.
The museum’s expanding collection of Islamic art later moved into its own wing (opened 2012), for which Italian architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti enclosed another interior courtyard beneath an undulating gold-coloured roof made of glass and steel.
In 2012 a satellite location of the Louvre in the northern French town of Lens opened to the public.
The museum, designed by the Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, was intended to boost the economy of the region and to alleviate crowds at the Paris site.
Five years later, after nearly a decade of delays, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in a building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel on Saadiyat Island, the emirate’s planned cultural hub.
The new institution was the result of a controversial agreement between the governments of France and the United Arab Emirates, wherein the Louvre leased its name, parts of its collection, and its expertise to the nascent museum for a period of 30 years.
Presently, its collections, among the finest in the world, span several millennia and a territory that stretches from America to the frontiers of Asia.
It is also the most visited museum in the world, with no fewer than 8.9 million visitors in 2023.
The museum’s most famous works include the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Crouching Scribe, the Victory of Samothrace and the Code of Hammurabi.
The Coin:
The Reverse of the 2€ (Two Euro) Coin is titled "Musée du Louvre" depicts Perrault's Colonnade, the Eastern façade of the building overlooking the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.
This exterior façade is inserted of the museum's layout, in which the RF, the yeardate and the hallmarks are placed. In the back, the Louvre pyramid stands out from its structure, which covers the background of the coin.
Once the palace of kings, the Louvre has been at the heart of French history for eight centuries. Conceived from its creation in 1793 as a universal museum, its collections, among the finest in the world, span several millennia and a territory that stretches from America to the frontiers of Asia.
The specifications of this Coin are:
Diameter/Size: 25.75 mm
Metal Composition: COMMON
METAL, CUPRONICKEL
Weight: 8.5 g
Coin Qualité: Proof (P)
Mintage: 5000 pieces
Millésime/Year of Coin issue: 2025
Valeur faciale/Face Value/Denomination: 2€ (Two Euro)
Links:
1) For more on the Olympics and Paralympics held in the past, including the origins and history of the Olympics and Commemorative coins issued both on London Olympics and Paralympics please read my post on the London Olympics 2012 link as follows: History of the ancient & modern Olympics and Paralympics & commemorative coins issued during the London Olympics and Paralympics
4) For Rio 2016, please click on the following link to get interesting insights into the mascots of the Rio Olympics Vinicius and Tom, the Games and the Commemorative Coins and stamps issue programme: 1)The 31st Summer Olympics "Rio 2016"2) Commemorative Stamps and booklets issued by the Department of Posts, India on 05.08.2016
5) For Ancient Olympic Games on Greek Coins of Antiquity, please click on the following link: Ancient Olympic Games on Greek Coins of Antiquity
6) For a set of Post cards titled "Olympic Events" : please click on the following link: "Olympic Events": A set of 12 Post Cards issued by the Karnataka Postal Circle, India Post on 11.07.2016
7) For a presentation set of two stamps titled "Spirit of Olympics, Athens, Atlanta" please visit the following link: Spirit of the Olympic Games, Athens-Atlanta: Celebrating the Centenary of the Modern Olympic Games
8) For a presentation set of four stamps titled "XXVIII Olympic Games" (2004 Summer Olympics Athens, Greece, please visit the following link: XVIII Summer Olympic Games, Athens Greece (2004)
9) For a presentation set of two stamps titled "XXIX Olympic Games" (2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing, China, please visit the following link: XXIX Olympic Games Beijing, China: 08.08.08- 24.08.08: A Presentation set of four stamps issued by India Post on 08.08.08
Links to the Mutiny on the Bounty Coins/Stamps:
Links to other posts in Metropolis Tiffany Art Coin Series:
Rajan Trikha has commented:
ReplyDelete"Very Interesting & Informative Post."
Thank you so much Trikha sahab.
DeleteRaj Kumar Srivastava has commented:
ReplyDelete"Nice."
Thank you so much, Raj.
DeleteSantosh Khanna has commented:
ReplyDelete"A VERY interesting post. Thanks for sharing."
Thank you so much Khanna sahab.
Delete