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2025

Format:	Book
Author:	Sciolino, Elaine, author.
Title:	Adventures in the Louvre : ow to fall in love with the world's greatest museum / Elaine Sciolino.
Edition:	First edition.
Publisher, Date:	New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2025]
Description:	370 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
Summary:	"The Louvre is the most famous museum in the world, attracting millions of visitors every year with its masterpieces. In [this book], Elaine Sciolino immerses herself in this magical space and helps us fall in love with what was once a forbidding fortress. Exploring galleries, basements, rooftops, and gardens, Sciolino demystifies the Louvre, introducing us to her favorite artworks, both legendary and overlooked, and to the people who are the museum's lifeblood: the curators, the artisans producing frames and engravings, the builders overseeing restorations, the firefighters protecting the aging structure"-- Provided by publisher.
Target Audience Note:	0 Lexile.
Subjects:	Musée du Louvre. Art museums -- France -- Paris. Art conservation and restoration. Paris (France) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-356) and index. Kirkus Reviews,011525 Library Journal, 040125, p. 53 Publishers Weekly,040725
ISBN:	9781324021407
Other Number:	1511819970
System Availability:	1
# Local items:	1
Call Number:	708.436 Sciolin, E Adventur
# Local items in:	1
# System items in:	1
Current Holds:	0
Medium:	ow to fall in love with the world's greatest museum

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Library Journal Review

Most readers who want a book about a museum will pick the one with the most pictures. This often recreates the closest feeling to being there in person and makes a great souvenir. However, former New York Times Paris bureau chief Sciolino (The Seine: The River That Made Paris) uses mostly text and minimal pictures to create a book that feels like a personal, one-on-one tour through the Louvre. Tales from current and former staff of the museum, as well as Sciolino's own tips, add to the allure for those who have already visited and will inspire others to do so. Current social themes, such as depictions of women and LGBTQIA+ representation, are covered in individual chapters, with Sciolino offering meaningful discussions rather than fully criticizing one side or the other. No previous knowledge of the Louvre is necessary for this read, and the history of the museum is thoroughly and enjoyably discussed. Chapters can be read as stand-alones for readers researching a specific subject. VERDICT A spiritual, relevant, and historical literary visit to the Louvre when it is impossible to go in person.--Elizabeth Chandler

Publishers Weekly Review

New York Times contributing writer Sciolino (The Only Street in Paris) takes readers on an affectionate and expressive tour through the labyrinthine halls of the "best-known and yet least understood museum in the world." Combining history, interviews, and firsthand experience, she discusses famous artworks (including the 2,200-year-old Greek sculpture of Nike); explores how the Mona Lisa--which became a "global superstar" after being stolen in 1911-- "enslaves and empowers" the museum with its complex logistical and financial hurdles and pull on first-time visitors, 80% of whom visit primarily to see the painting; and delves into the sometimes-exclusionary nature of art history exemplified in clashes between the museum and contemporary culture (in 2018 the museum staged Beyoncé and Jay-Z's music video for "Apeshit"--viewed by some as a showy display of wealth and by others as an empowering attempt to open the "historically white space" to a broader audience). Undergirding the author's conversations with curators, art historians, and museum guards is her own appealingly intimate--if occasionally gushing--narrative of falling in love with the museum and in the process discovering the "sensual dialogue emerges when human beings discover the wonder in works of art." The result is a charmingly effusive love letter sure to delight art history buffs. Photos. (Apr.)

Kirkus Review

A grand tour of a museum like no other. Deftly weaving history and memoir, formerNew York Times Paris bureau chief Sciolino offers a spirited journey through France's most storied museum, the Louvre. At various times a fortress, a public inn, an arsenal, a prison, a mint, and a workplace for artisans, the king's palace became a "people's museum" as a result of the French Revolution, open to all. Its original royal collection quickly grew, augmented with art from the homes of guillotined aristocrats, Versailles and other palaces, churches, and monasteries. Added to and remodeled as it expanded, with artworks gained through conquest and plunder, it became a sprawling edifice, with over 400 rooms in an assortment of architectural and decorative styles. The galleries, stretching half a mile, exhibit some 30,000 of its half million holdings; it employs more than 2,300 people, including curators, restorers, guards, and guides, working on 25 different levels. Sciolino reports on her conversations with many of them as she encountered specific pieces of art (theMona Lisa, theVenus de Milo, theWinged Victory of Samothrace, to name a few), or she follows themes such as food, animals, jewels, and even shoes. The Louvre has so many shoes in its paintings that it published a coffee-table book on footwear. Sciolino takes unexpected paths to find quiet corners: a small collection of Impressionists (the bulk being at the Musée d'Orsay), tribal art, and one of the world's largest collections of frames. Although the Louvre does not offer a queer-themed tour, unlike other major museums, Sciolino notes its extensive queer art collection. Her celebration of a beloved venue also highlights outposts in the French city of Lens, in Abu Dhabi, and in Métro stations featuring a host of reproductions. Illustrated with 53 black-and-white photos. An intimate visit with a generous, genial guide. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Summary

The Louvre is the most famous museum in the world, attracting millions of visitors every year with its masterpieces. In Adventures in the Louvre, Elaine Sciolino immerses herself in this magical space and helps us fall in love with what was once a forbidding fortress.

Exploring galleries, basements, rooftops, and gardens, Sciolino demystifies the Louvre, introducing us to her favorite artworks, both legendary and overlooked, and to the people who are the museum's lifeblood: the curators, the artisans producing frames and engravings, the builders overseeing restorations, the firefighters protecting the aging structure.

Blending investigative journalism, travelogue, history, and memoir, Sciolino walks her readers through the museum's front gates and immerses them in its irresistible, engrossing world of beauty and culture. Adventures in the Louvre reveals the secrets of this grand monument of Paris and basks in its timeless, seductive power.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Falling for the Louvre	1
Part 1	The Allure
1	Beauty and the Feather	9
2	The People's Palace	17
3	The Most Famous Face in the World	29
4	The Paintings Magician	43
5	A Goddess with No Arms	53
6	A Tour Guide Named Beyoncé	61
Part 2	Getting to Know You
7	The Center of the Universe	69
8	The Open-Air Museum	81
9	A Strange Construction	93
10	Le Louvre La Nuit	101
11	Is the Louvre Burning?	111
Part 3	Revelations
12	Up Close	127
13	Whatever Happened to the Crown Jewels?	137
14	"La brioche est brûlée!"	147
15	The Artist's Menagerie	159
16	Hidden Corners	167
17	The Orphans of World War II	175
18	You Belong to Me	187
Part 4	Discoveries
19	Where Are the Women?	195
20	Pharaohs, Kings, Slaves, Servants	209
21	An Islam of Enlightenment	221
22	Persia Comes to Paris	231
23	The Queer Universe	237
24	Celebrating the Contemporary	245
Part 5	Romance
25	Exit Through the Gift Shop	255
26	Tuesdays at the Louvre	263
27	The Museum with a Conscience	273
28	When Money Is No Object	285
Part 6	Be Mine
29	Creating an Identity	299
30	Blue in the Bushes	311
	Acknowledgments	317
Appendix A	Parting Strategies	323
Appendix B	A Selection of Artists and Works	329
	Chronology	337
	Selected Bibliography	349
	Index	357

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