100.000 works transferred from the Louvre to the new 18.500 m² Liévin conservation center

The transfer of a total of 250.000 works and objects of all sizes is expected to be completed in 2024.

This building of 18.500 square meters crossed by a large nave was inaugurated at the beginning of October 2019. It borders the Louvre-Lens, inaugurated seven years earlier, forming with it the second pole of the first French museum.

"Liévin is a tool at the service of the Louvre-Lens. There is a desire that the national collections are not all in Paris", explained the president and director of the Louvre Jean-Luc Martinez during a press visit to the center.

Lit by bay windows, 1.300 square meters are reserved for researchers to consult the works. By the end of March, more than 80% of the collections will have been put online, or 480.000 records of works out of a total of 550.000.

After noticing a work on the site, along with the related documentation, "a researcher from Oxford or a doctoral student may ask to come and study it". This tool is "a giant leap in knowledge of collections," said the boss of the Louvre.

9.600 square meters are dedicated to conservation, in spaces adapted to different formats, carpets, lapidaries, paintings, frames, etc ... Some paintings or tapestries by their size have never been unrolled for decades.

The fear of the flooding of reserves after the great floods of the Seine as in 1910, and, to a lesser extent in 2016, had led to this decision to outsource.

A so-called "buffer" reserve of 1.700 works remains in the basement of the Louvre, meeting the needs of curators to renew the hangings.

35.000 works are exhibited in Paris and 35.000 others in the provinces.

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has similarly outsourced its collections, and several museums in the Netherlands are in the process of doing so.