While the outbreak of Covid-19 has resulted in the closure of 95 per cent museums across the world, alternative ways of exploring culture are becoming commonplace. From the Google Arts and Culture app, to the almost daily Instagram live videos from a range of institutions, culture has not disappeared, simply changed its form.
James Gardner’s most recent book, The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum, published later this week, sets out at examining another way in which we can engage with culture, looking closely at its history, and uncovering some uncomfortable truths in the process.
In a piece for The Daily Telegraph, Gardner explores some of the gallery's history, writing that through the questionable acquisition of pieces, the Louvre became: “by fair means and foul, the greatest repository of art, ancient and modern, that the world had ever seen or would ever see again.”
He continues, writing of the campaigns of Napoleon’s army, citing the creation of the agences d’évacuation and agences d’extraction, who were tasked with ensuring that “artists and learned literary men be sent in secret, following in the footsteps of our armies… and carefully remove monuments of art and science and bring them into France”.
The gallery’s current closure provides the perfect time to examine its past. With online tours readily available, it is still possible for the eager few to view the gallery, and to search the collection, though with more context and personal space than the gallery traditionally allows for. Gardener’s examination of the museum’s history provides an ideal companion for such a gander.
The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum will be published on Thursday.
