The Louvre Museum and the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac have jointly inaugurated the Gallery of Five Continents, a completely redesigned new exhibition space at the Louvre dedicated to the encounter between cultures and art forms from around the world.
Created through a collaboration between the two museums, the Gallery of the Five Continents, which opened to the public on Dec. 3, 2025, offers an unprecedented dialogue between works of art from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Twenty-five years after the opening of the Pavillon des Sessions (2000-2024), conceived as a manifesto of equality between cultures, this new exhibition offers a broader view of global art history, linking different eras, territories and objects. The Gallery brings together 130 works held in the collections of the Louvre, the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac and various other institutions. A special section is also devoted to the history of the collections and the provenance of the exhibits.
Located in theDenon Wing, near the Porte des Lions (also renovated), the Five Continents Gallery represents a new step in the journey begun in 2000 at the behest of President Jacques Chirac. The Pavillon des Sessions had in fact made it possible to bring together, for the first time, the arts of African, Asian, Oceanic and American civilizations within France’s main museum institution, integrating non-Western masterpieces into the history of art. A quarter of a century later, in a cultural context increasingly attentive to the plurality of heritages, the new Gallery aims to strengthen the dialogue between different cultures.
The Five Continents Gallery was born from a completely rethought museographic project designed to encourage encounters between different works, cultures and eras. Through various techniques, the exhibition is part of a larger movement that aims to overcome divisions between artistic traditions, enhancing equality, diversity and universality of cultural heritage.
For the first time, forty-two works from the Louvre, including sculpture, decorative arts, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern antiquities, Islamic art, and Byzantine art, dialogue with seventy-seven masterpieces from the Muséand du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac and with loans from the Musée Guimet, Musée d’Aquitaine, Château-Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée national de la Marine, and Nigeria. The works are interwoven through thematic, conceptual, and formal links. Visitors are invited to discover these cross-references through focused groupings and juxtapositions. The shared curatorial approach between the two museums expresses a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect: the goal is to build meaningful connections between the works, collectively telling the story of humanity in all its breadth and complexity.
Organized into sections devoted to universal themes, such as the representation of power, manifestations of the sacred, worldviews, and the relationship with natural elements, fundamental concepts interpreted in different ways by different civilizations, the Gallery brings out formal and symbolic affinities between objects distant in space and time. Each section is introduced by a text in three languages (French, English and Spanish), while each work is accompanied by a bilingual label. Some 20 pieces also have in-depth fact sheets explaining their history, use and provenance.
The entrance to the Five Continents Gallery is located at the Porte des Lions, between the Flore Wing and the Denon Wing, on the Seine side. The completely renovated door provides quick access to the newly renovated galleries of 17th- and 18th-century Italian and Spanish paintings located on the second floor. The reception spaces have been redesigned while respecting the original architecture and responding more effectively to the needs of the public: self-service checkrooms, a new reception area, a cafeteria, improved accessibility conditions, and a new entrance overlooking the Quai des Tuileries. The Louvre Museum would like to thank the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Foundation for funding the reception areas and exterior interventions of the Five Continents Gallery.
At the entrance to the Five Continents Gallery is Café des Lions, which offers a moment of refreshment in a setting with a splendid view of the Jardin du Carrousel. The combination of dark wood and stone creates a cozy space where visitors can sit at the large central table or find more intimacy in the alcoves. The menu extols the tradition of French baking and pastry: pain au chocolat, apple tartlets, madeleines, macarons, and a selection of sandwiches prepared daily by the Boulangerie du Louvre. The museum has commissioned master bakers Pascal Rigo and Arnaud Chevalier to enhance their art within the cafeteria through the products of the Boulangerie du Louvre, which has been operating under the Pyramid since June 5, 2025. For the first time in a major museum, the bakery has a full laboratory where bread is kneaded, left to rise and baked daily, using high-quality flours and sourdoughs. The Café is open daily, except Tuesdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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| Louvre opens Five Continents Gallery, with 130 works from the world brought together |
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