The Louvre has opened a new database where all the works in its collections, whether exhibited or not, are accessible to the public free of charge via the Internet.
Instructions for three quarters of them are also available.
“
This is a step that has been prepared for many years with the aim of serving the general public as well as the public of researchers.
Accessibility is at the heart of our missions
”, underlined in a videoconference the president and director of the Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez.
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The new site already includes 482,943 widely illustrated records, or about three-quarters of the collections.
It replaces the old Atlas base, whose perimeter was limited to the works on display.
The consultation will allow you to explore the emblematic works as well as to consult, for example, fragmentary archaeological series of Greek antiquities.
Collections.louvre.fr has been designed for both researchers and amateurs with numerous entries, routes, tools, notices ... The platform also covers the Delacroix museum - which depends on the Louvre -, the sculptures of the Tuileries and the works recovered in Germany since 1945 and entrusted to the custody of the Louvre pending their eventual return to their despoiled owner.
A work can be searched, whether it is exhibited in theaters, on deposit in other institutions or in reserves, in particular those stored in the new ultramodern center in Liévin (Pas-de-Calais).
New website
In addition to this platform, there is a new website, louvre.fr, which aims to be more ergonomic, more visual, more immersive, more narrative.
It is accessible in French, English, Spanish and Chinese, also making a large place for images and video.
It was designed primarily for practical use on a tablet or smartphone, studies having shown that 60% of consultations were already done through these means.
It is designed for all audiences, from schoolchildren to many foreign tourists, with general admission.
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"
There was a public appetite for the story
" around the works and the museum "
to which we responded
", underlined Dominique de Font-Réaulx, director of mediation and cultural programming, explaining that "
a large place was given to the still and animated image
”to accompany these stories in the largest museum in the world.
The year Covid 2020 was marked by an explosion of visits to the Louvre site and its increased presence on social networks: 21 million visits to louvre.fr and ten million subscribers on the networks.