Paris is home to many museums, but no other museum on earth is as famous as the Louvre. The place itself is part of France's history and has served as a fortress and later as a royal residence, and just years later became a museum.
Although many visitors plan to visit the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, the museum features 480,000 artworks spread over eight departments. So travelers can expect to see much more than Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, as the Louvre is also home to some of the world's most iconic pieces.
10 Venus De Milo
Louvre is home to some Hellenistic masterpieces, and the Venus de Milo is one of them. The statue is also known as Aphrodite and represents the ideal of beauty of Ancient Greece. It was unearthed on Milos island, Greece, in the 19th century and found in pieces. While it was possible to reassemble most of it, the marble sculpture had lost its arms. Some sources claim that her left arm was holding an apple while the right one was touching its waist.
Alexandros of Antioch created the marble masterpiece, and now visitors can admire the Venus de Milo at the o gallery 16 on the ground floor of the Sully wing.
9 The Great Sphinx Of Tanis
There are more than 7,000 Egyptian artifacts displayed at Louvre. The collection is spread over 35 rooms in the Sully wing, and one of the most outstanding of them is the Great Sphinx of Tanis, which dates back to 2600 BC. It's one of the largest sphinges found outside Egypt.
The sculpture was carved in a granite block and represented the Pharaoh with a lion's body, the eternal guardian of sacred places. Therefore, visitors can find it at the entrance of the Egyptian department, protecting all the objects.
8 Winged Victory Of Samothrace
The Winged Victory of Samothrace is another Hellenistic masterpiece and is strategically placed on the top of the monumental Daru staircase. The statue was carved as an offer to the gods and was placed in a sanctuary in Samothrace. It represents the goddess of Victory and celebrates the triumph of a naval battle.
The statue was rediscovered in the 19th century and was also in pieces. Although it was possible to reassemble most of it, the head and arms were never found.
7 Liberty Leading The People
The Liberty Leading People painting can be found at Gallery 77 in the Denon wing. Eugene Delacroix painted it to celebrate the 1830 French revolution. In the image, a woman guides the people, holding the French flag in one hand and a weapon in the other.
Venus de Milo inspired Delacroix to paint the woman, and it's his most famous painting. The Liberty Leading People was brought to Louvre seven years after the artist's death.
6 Psyche Revived By Cupid's Kiss
This sculpture represents one of the most famous stories in Greek mythology. Venus asked Psyche to get a flask in the underworld and told her never to open it — which she eventually did and fell into a deathlike sleep. Psyche was found by Venu's son, Cupid, who kissed her, bringing her back to life. That's the moment captured by this sculpture.
Antonio Canova created it in the 18th century, and it's now displayed at Louvre, in the Denon Wing, Room 4.
5 The Raft Of The Medusa
Visitors looking at The Raft of Medusa today might not realize that when Théodore Géricault painted it back in the 19th century, it was perceived as a radical work of art. As a result, it received positive and negative reviews when the public saw it for the first time.
While painting it, Géricault had to rent a house big enough to fit the sixteen by twenty-three-foot artwork. The painting features the damaged French naval ship Méduse arriving in Mauritania in 1816. Visitors can admire it at the Denon Wing Hall 77.
4 The Seated Scribe
The Seated Scribe is also part of the Egyptian collection of the Louvre. As the name suggests, this realistic limestone statue features a seated scribe working 4,000 years ago. The nipples are made of wood, while the eyes are made of rock crystal.
This sculpture was unearthed in 1850 in a burial ground at Saqqara, Egypt. The realistic image of the scribe holding a rolled papyrus and sitting cross-legged still impresses people thousands of years later, and visitors can see it at the Pavillon de Verre.
3 Easter Island Statue
The Louvre has a department called Arts of the World, featuring only 120 pieces from every continent. The area is much less visited compared to other areas of the museum, and of the highlights is the head of a statue from Easter Island.
The statues are called Moai, and they are built on stone platforms overlooking sacred locations on the island. The heads represent two-fifths of the figure, and they have flat hats where volcanic stones were placed on them.
2 Bathsheba At Her Bath
Rembrandt is one of the most prominent Dutch painters, and it's possible to admire his work at Louvre. The most famous artwork there is Bathsheba at the Bath, which features a tale from the old testament. Bathsheba was married to Uriah when King David saw her during her bath and invited her to visit the palace. After that, he sent Uriah to a war, where he died, and he married Bathsheba, who became the mother of Salomon.
While the scene was portrayed by other painters who decided to show the moment David laid eyes on Bathsheba for the first time, Rembrandt chose to show the moment she faced the dilemma of obeying her king or being faithful to her husband.
1 French Crown Jewels
King Louis XIV didn't hide that he felt related to Apollo, the sun god, and his luxurious taste is now exhibited at the Galerie d'Apollon. Visitors can see his vessels in a gallery with paintings of Apollo on its ceiling. Yet, the French crown jewels are the pieces that drag most of the attention.
The French crown jewels include Empress Marie Louise's emerald and diamond pieces, diamonds that were once on the royal crown, and other gems that were part of France's history.