Louvre puts entire collection online: nearly 500,000 works

The Louvre Museum in Paris has launched a new website, collections.louvre.fr, making its entire collection of over 482,000 works available online for the first time. The database includes pieces from the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, sculptures from the Tuileries and Carrousel gardens, and works recovered after World War II. Previously, only about 30,000 items were accessible on the old site, which received 21 million visits in 2020. The new platform offers simple and advanced searches, curatorial department filters, thematic albums, and an interactive map for virtual room-by-room exploration. Information is available in French, English, Spanish, and Chinese. Louvre president Jean-Luc Martinez stated that the digital initiative aims to dust off even lesser-known treasures and inspire future in-person visits. The site will be regularly updated by museum experts. Martinez also emphasized the museum's ongoing provenance research, particularly for works looted by Nazis and colonial acquisitions. Among nearly 1,800 pieces recovered from Germany are paintings by Chardin, Delacroix, and Corot, housed in the Musées Nationaux Récupération galleries opened in 2017. Martinez called provenance research the main challenge for museums to maintain credibility, and he hopes the new effort will bolster the Louvre's public image and support his bid for a new directorial mandate.