Today is the anniversary of the opening of the Museum Central des Arts, or the Musee du Louvre as it is known as today. Standing as one the largest and most visited museum in the world, the Louvre first made its masterpieces available to the public 219 years ago today. The famed French museum began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II, then called the Palais du Louvre. During the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th century, the Louvre became a place to display the royal collection and later a home for the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which held salons there for nearly 100 years... And then the French...
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