Louvre to Open Byzantine and Greek Orthodox Art Department

A new department dedicated to Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox Christian art is expected to open at the Musée du Louvre in 2027. A delegation, led by Louvre director Laurence des Cars, presented plans for the new department in Athens on Thursday.

On display in the new department will be nearly 20,000 objects of Byzantine art depicting religious and social themes. Greece will play a central role in the development of the department, des Cars announced at an informal meeting at the French ambassador’s house, according to the Greek Reporter.

Cultural exchanges between Greece and France began with the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence in 2021, and they are expected to continue as they develop the Louvre’s department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art.

Bringing in approximately nine million visitors annually, the Louvre’s ninth department will introduce Byzantine civilization to the public and highlight regional contributions to civilization, including Byzantine icons.

According Maximilien Durand, who will oversee the new department’s curation, the permanent exhibition will showcase objects from the 3rd century CE through 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which granted independence to the Republic of Turkey as well as protection for the Greek Orthodox Christian minority in Turkey and the Muslim minority in Greece, was signed. It will span areas from present-day Ethiopia to Russia, the Caucasus to Mesopotamia, and the Balkans to the Middle East, as Greece played a vital role at various times throughout these locations.

The role of icons and the development of iconography, particularly for Christians in the East, will also be part of the display as it defined cultures in the area.