Paris France ~ Louvre Museum ~ Department of Greek Etruscan and Roman Antiquities ~ Historic by Onasill ~ Bill Badzo

Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities The Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities is home to a collection of artworks representing the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman civilizations; it illustrates the art of a vast area encompassing Greece, Italy, and the whole of the Mediterranean basin, and spans the period from Neolithic times (4th millennium BC) to the 6th century AD. The antiquities department (which opened in 1793) was formed around the former royal collections, enriched by property seized during the French Revolution. In 1800, the museum was installed in Anne of Austria’s summer apartments; in 1807, the purchase of over five hundred marble sculptures from the Borghese collection required the refurbishment of the Salle des Cariatides, the ground floor of the Pavillon du Roi, and the queen’s winter apartments. After the return of the works to Italy in 1815, Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818), the Louvre’s first curator of antiquities, adopted an active acquisitions policy. The Venus de Milo (presented to Louis XVIII by the Marquis de Rivière) entered the museum in 1821. The Louvre’s collection, mostly comprised of marble sculptures, was enriched with archaeological objects when the Tochon collection was purchased in 1818, followed by that of Durand (1825-1836); this led to the opening of the Musée Charles X on the first floor of the Louvre palace in 1827.