Louvre’s Apollo Gallery reopening after facelift

PARIS, Nov 21 (AFP) – The Apollo Gallery, one of the glories of the Louvre Museum in Paris, will throw open its art treasures to public gaze again from November 27 after a EUR 4.5 million (USD 5.9 million), three-year makeover.

The gallery, dedicated to the glory of Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” nearly 350 years ago, contains a glittering array of two centuries of French art and sculpture from Le Brun to Delacroix.

It was restored with the help of donations worth EUR 4.5 million from the French oil company Total, and has been modernised to include state-of-the-art alarm and security systems.

More than 60 specialists, architects, conservation experts, chemists, restorers and carpenters were drafted in to restore the gallery and its contents, including 11 canvasses, 30 decorative paintings on plaster, 36 sculptures and 28 tapestries.