Transcript

NARRATOR

So throughout the nineteenth century, the Louvre had tried to satisfy contradictory aims. To an extent it retained the state and royal associations of the Louvre and Tuileries Palaces. Until 1980 it continued to house the Ministry of Finance. The old Louvre presented the visitor with hideous circulation difficulties. There was only one entrance, on the south side.

JEAN LEBRAT (Translation)

I.M. Pei took this into account and said ‘the entrance must be at the centre of gravity of the collections’.

I M PEI

Why centre of gravity? from that point, it’s almost the shortest distance to the three pavilions. Richelieu, Denon and Sully. If you’d put the entrance let’s say at the centre of Napoleon Court, that is the place where the entrance should be.

And then people can then go down and and see exactly where they are, and how they should go about visiting the museum.

I think the entrance to a great museum, has to be appropriate to the Louvre, and we simply couldn’t do anything that is above ground that is grand enough to do justice to that requirement. By excavating Napoleon Court we put the reception hall quite far down, nine meters below ground. And so therefore with the pyramid we have a tremendous volume. That volume gives Napoleon Hall the kind of importance that it deserves.

JEAN LEBRAT (Translation)

The Louvre is the museum of Paris. It’s the great museum of France. When I went to Japan I was struck how travel agents sell the Pyramid of the Louvre as an essential part of the European tour.

TIM BENTON.

So already, this building has become a symbol of French identity.

In a similar way, works which have been acquired over the years from other cultures, have taken on French citizenship. To question their value is in a sense to challenge the authority of the state.

I asked Jean Lebrat if the Mona Lisa is in any way French.

JEAN LEBRAT: (Translation)

I believe she is profoundly French. You can’t imagine her leaving here - even to go to England!

TIM BENTON.

The canon of works in the Louvre - here is the result of a long process of selection and rejection. Although chance and political factors played an important role in deciding what’s in the Louvre, a continuing process of discrimination and debate either validates or challenges the selection and subtly adjusts the pecking order of the canon, as it’s presented to the public.

And this is a process to which we’re all entitled to participate.

PIERRE ROSENBERG

Museums are not sterilised, they are moving they’re changing they’re transforming, so why not here say that the move will be finished in 1998? I agree this because I have to say so, but in reality I know perfectly well that the museum will be never finished by chance, it’s a living institution and if it could be finished it could prove that the museum would be dead.