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
Catalog of paintings in the Louvre Museum Catalog of paintings in the Louvre Museum The Catalog of paintings in the Louvre Museum lists the painters of the collection of the Louvre Museum as they are catalogued in the Joconde database. The collection contains roughly 5,500 paintings by 1,400 artists born before 1900, and over 500 named artists are French by birth. For painters with more than two works in the collection, or for paintings by unnamed and unknown artists, see the Louvre website. Most artists in the collection are represented with only one or two works, but some artists are represented with many many more; for example