We will not be here to dwell, once again, about how the artistic and cultural institutions during the last year have opened their arms to the digital world, but if there is one thing we can be sure of, it is that Covid has changed the way the user interacts with the industry.

The mechanism is simple: with the advent of the virus, those who have not adapted to the change have not survived and if, by some miracle, someone has succeeded, it is still necessary to see in what conditions. In any case, a third category of “survivors” can be represented by those who arrived late and the Louvre certainly belongs to the latter.

Louvre, intern – Courtesy of Pinterest

A name is a guarantee, you will think. A giant, an unimaginable museum machine with a collection that, among the exhibition rooms and storage areas, has approximately 620,000 artworks of which only 35,000 are visible. However, giants are not exactly sprinters, on the opposite, they often have cumbersome movements that do not allow them the most agile moves.

The Louvre has been slow but it has (finally) arrived at its digital renewal with the launch of a new website and the online collection: by connecting to the new portal, “visual and immersive”, the user can wander – virtually – through the rooms of the museum.

The portal, available not only in French but also in English, Chinese and Spanish, is divided into three sections – Visit, Explore, What’s on – through which you can easily and intuitively reach the desired room and artwork. Each of these is accompanied by a real technical sheet – also downloadable in PDF – in which in addition to basic information such as author, title and date, we also find the exhibition history and provenance.

Louvre – Portal, Courtesy of Louvre

But let’s go into details.

Visit: here you will find all the information necessary for the (physical) visit to the museum which unfortunately is closed until a later date due to Covid.

Explore: the palace, gardens, collection, suggested visitors’ trials. The artworks are collected in a single database and divided by categories (painting, sculpture, textiles, jewelry and so on) which are in turn divided according to further filters that facilitate the search. If you are spoiled for choice, it is the museum guiding the visitor by suggesting different trials based on the time you have and, obviously, your interests.

 What’s on: to stay updated on museum news and events such as current exhibitions, guided tours and scheduled activities complete with dates and times.

No one has any more excuses, it’s time to go to the Louvre.