Louvre (Musée du Louvre) Director Laurence des Cars arrived in Athens on Thursday with a delegation to present a new department in the renowned museum, that of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art.
At an informal meeting at the French ambassador's residence, des Cars said Greece will play a central role at the new department, which will put on display nearly 20,000 objects of Byzantine art that cover society, besides religion. The Louvre director and art historian said that, as in 2021 for the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence, cultural exchanges between Greece and France will continue.
The Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art is the ninth department of the Louvre and will be inaugurated in 2027, two decades after the latest one that was devoted to Islam.
Des Cars said that 9 million tourists visit the Louvre annually, making it by far the most visited museum globally. The new exhibition will acquaint visitors with the complexity of Byzantine civilization, and remind the public of the region's contribution as well at the role of icons.
The international tender for the museum's new department has been concluded, with WHY company winning the bid. As des Cars underlined, the department will open new fields of collaboration with Greece.
The Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art will be curated by Maximilien Durand, who spoke at the ambassadorial residence on developments since 2021 that provide a unique character to the collection. He said the department's permanent exhibition will include objects from the 3rd century AD to 1923 (the Lausanne Treaty signing), and cover areas from Ethiopia to Russia, the Caucasus to Mesopotamia, and the Balkans to the Middle East, with Greece playing a key role in this large geographical area.
Besides the chronological and geographical aspects, the exhibition will also explore the role of icons for Christians in the East, how the role developed, and how it defined the cultures of the region.
All of these factors formulate the conditions of a dialog, emphasizing the varied influences between East and West as only the Byzantine period can narrate best of all, Durand said.