Louvre of ground- and lower-ground-level interior spaces topped by a golden, undulating roof (fashioned from almost 9,000 steel tubes that form an interior web) that seems to float within the neo-Classical Visconti Courtyard in the middle of the Louvre's south wing. The galleries, which the museum had initially hoped to open by 2009, represent the first major architectural intervention at the Louvre since the addition of I.M. Pei's glass pyramid in 1989. On 5 February 2015, about one hundred archaeologists, protesting against commercial private involvement to protect France's heritage, blocked Louvre's ticket desks to facilitate free access to the museum. At
Paris in the 18th century hall within the Tuileries Palace. The Committee of Public Safety, charged with hunting down the enemies of the Revolution, established its headquarters close by in the "Pavillon de Flore" of the Louvre, while the Tribunal, the revolutionary court, set up its courtroom within the old Royal Palace on the "Île-de-la-Cité", inside what is now the "Palais de Justice". The Commune, the government of Paris, also held elections, but these were won by the more moderate members, known as the "Girondins", rather than the more radical faction, the "Montagnards", largely because the election, unlike the Convention vote, was by secret ballot.