Jean-Luc Martinez: Bid for the Louvre!

This sale is a highly original initiative for the Louvre. How did it come about? There are two goals here. For some time now, I have been concerned that the Louvre has no record of its many collaborations with artists. For instance, the Chalcothèque (bronze department) commissioned engraved plates from creators like JR and Jean-Michel Othoniel for a series of limited edition prints. I felt that the museum should work with them on finding a way to preserve a trace of their work. Another example: nothing remains to us of Claude Lévêque's ephemeral presence beneath the Pyramid from 2014. There are also artists who create comic strips for our publications, but we have no original plates in our collection. Worse still, with permanent installations—like François Morellet's stained glass windows in the Richelieu wing staircase—there is no record of the creative process. So I wanted the museum to ask these artists to sell or give us a testimony of…