A landmark as vast and expansive as the Louvre deserves to be explored in all its glory; there’s much more to it than the Mona Lisa after all. Home to 480,000 pieces of art including paintings, sculptures, decorative art, and more, the Louvre collection is an art lover’s wildest fantasy. If you’re planning to visit the Louvre Museum, it would be recommended to know about the different collections available for your viewing pleasure. We have done just that with this Louvre collection guide.

The Louvre collections explained

Paintings

The Paintings Department of the Louvre Museum is unique in that it only displays works created before 1848, with a few exceptions. European paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries are featured in this collection. The Grand Gallery is another well-known gallery filled with magnificent paintings that should not be overlooked.

Find them here:

1st floor of the Denon wing
2nd floor of the Richelieu and Sully wings

The most famous artworks

Sculptures

The Antiquities Department used to house the Sculptures Department with the latter operating solo in 1871. Sculptures from France, Italy, and northern Europe are now on display as part of this collection. The period covered is from the Middle Ages to the turn of the nineteenth century.

Find them here:

The French statues in the Marly and Puget courtyards can be seen on the mezzanine in the Richelieu Wing.
Spanish, northern European, and Italian sculptures are on display in the Denon Wing's mezzanine.

Egyptian Collection

In 1827, the Louvre opened the first Egyptian Museum, which consisted of four rooms. The museum was built and directed by Jean-François Champollion, the French academic who decoded Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822, to spread knowledge of this enigmatic culture that had long interested Europeans. Egyptology became a science, and the museum's collection grew significantly.

Find them here:

The Department of Egyptian Antiquities now spans 2 floors of the Louvre.

Near Eastern Antiques

The origins of writing can be traced to the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities. The first written words of humanity are preserved there. Visitors can observe the first legal documents and human depictions from the Neolithic age when men began to practice farming and agriculture. The Department of Near Eastern Antiquities is separated into three collections, each covering a geographical area ranging from the eastern Mediterranean to India, via the Arabian peninsula and the Black Sea.

Find them here:

Richelieu Wing Level -1: This section focuses on early Mesopotamian art and includes monumental pieces such as the Assyrian lamassu (winged bulls), as well as pottery and objects from Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian cultures.
Richelieu Wing Level 0: Features additional artifacts from the ancient Near East, such as tablets and cuneiform inscriptions, as well as smaller decorative objects from Persia and the Levant.

Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities

This department contains works from ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria (the civilization that predated Rome in central Italy). Notable objects include The Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Laocoön Group, and Roman portrait sculptures.

Find them here:

Ground and 1st floor of the Sully Wing
1st floor of the Denon Wing

Islamic Art

The Department of Islamic Arts was established in 2003. However, works associated with this genre had long been in France's possession. The phrase 'Islamic Art' encompasses all of the Islamic world's art forms. The Louvre represents these in a collection of objects dating from the advent of Islam in the seventh century until the late nineteenth century. From Spain to India, North Africa, and Egypt, the collection spans three continents.

Find them here:

The ground level of the Richelieu Wing

Royal Furniture

Before being transformed into a museum, the Louvre was a palace, a fact that’s on full display when you explore both Napoleon III and Anne of Austria’s apartments. The Minister of Official for Napoleon III lived in small private rooms that led to the vast state residences, where the mood was radically different. The drawing and dining rooms feature a swirl of gold, velvet, paintings, and stucco ornamentation, providing a lavish setting for any type of royal gathering.

Find them here:

The ground level of the Richelieu Wing

Arts from around the World

The Pavillon des Sessions, which opened in 2000, houses artworks from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. As a result, the world's most famous museum expanded its scope to encompass cultures from every continent. African sculptures, an Easter Island statue head, Arctic masks, a ceremonial house post from the Solomon Islands, and much more can be seen in the Pavillon des Sessions' big bright halls.
Jean-Michel Wilmotte's modest, unobtrusive exhibition space is the ideal showcase for the range of this exhibition.

Other collections

Aside from these main collections, visit the Rotonde Sully, a few steps from the Pyramid, which houses the Louvre's collection of prints and drawings. Here you can discover sketching and printmaking skills while admiring the art of some of Europe's greatest painters. The graphic arts collection of the Louvre is one of the world's largest, with almost 250,000 pieces ranging from the 11th to the 19th centuries, including drawings, pastels, prints, and miniatures. Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Charles Le Brun, Delacroix, Géricault and Ingres, Hans Holbein, and Rembrandt are among the many legendary artists featured here.

In addition to these categories, the Louvre also has a large collection of textiles, jewellery, finery, prints, and documents.