Author Elaine Sciolino Guides Readers through Her Adventures in the Louvre

Elaine Sciolino’s latest book on the world’s greatest museum—the Louvre—follows in the footsteps of her last two popular publications, The Seine: the River that Made Paris and The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs.

With each chapter, Sciolino gleefully guides us through this cultural, iconic labyrinth with more than 30,000 pieces of art spread out over 78,000 square feet. The former New York Times Paris bureau chief and award-winning author is a master researcher, writer, and storyteller. Spoiler alert: Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum is not a typical “Louvre book” that gives a sweeping overview of its impressive art collection and historical importance.

Adventures in the Louvre is simply that. A reader can’t help but feel that Sciolino thoroughly enjoyed herself exploring behind the scenes of the Louvre Museum, from its underbelly chambers to forbidden rooftops and through its less-travelled galleries to prestigious rooms after hours. The access she was given over four years to France’s most visited and prestigious museum is the stuff that dreams are made of.

The idea to tackle the Louvre for her next book came to her during the COVID-19 lockdown. She said she was trapped at home and decided to organize her books. She found a rare two-volume work with color photos of the paintings in the Louvre that she had bought from a bouquiniste stand along the Seine River.

“I thought, well, I’m not an art historian. I’m not a tour guide. But I’m a journalist and I know how to get in anywhere – so why not tackle the Louvre?”

Sciolino realized that no one had written a book about the Louvre from a journalistic point of view. So the book, she says, became a sort of third part of a trilogy – a street, a river, a museum! “If truth be told, it was by far the toughest of the three,” she admits.

Meet Elaine Sciolino for the French launch of Adventures in the Louvre on May 27th organized by INSPIRELLE at the Free Persephone Spa in Paris. Click HERE for details.

The opening chapters are dedicated to the “superstars” of the Louvre, with the chief curators as her exclusive guides. Who better to explain the origins of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the enigmatic Mona Lisa or the sublime, armless Venus de Milo? Imagine being alone with the most famous pieces of art or sculpture and having their guardians explain to you what makes each creation so unique, so intriguing.

Through Sciolino’s engaging prose, we come to understand why curators such as Ludovic Laugier, who began as an intern in the Louvre over 25 years ago or Vincent Dieulevin, responsible for “the most famous face in the world,” La Jaconda,” are passionately in love with the pieces of art they oversee. It’s as if we are tagging along behind the author as she is exposed to the treasures of the Louvre and their secrets. The backstories render each piece more precious to the reader.

The book tackles many historical questions. What does the museum’s name mean? When did the palace become the people’s museum? How did France’s crown jewels end up in an auction sold to Tiffany’s? Digging deep into the Louvre’s past for answers was initially difficult. She was seen as a “risk” by management because there was concern that they “could not control the information, argument, or the contents of the book,” according to an internal memo Sciolino discovered about her proposal.

“I had three strikes against me: I was an American. I was a journalist. I was not an art historian. The museum put up barriers.”

Fortunately, the barriers came down one by one as Sciolino became a regular, intrepid visitor, using her knowledge and innate curiosity to engage the Louvre’s gatekeepers. To explore the relationship between food and art throughout the centuries, Sciolino cleverly arranged a meal between Sebastien Allard, the Director of the Louvre’s painting department, Jean-Claude Ribaut, a food expert, and chef Guy Savoy at his Michelin-star restaurant along the Seine overlooking the museum. Together, the four art and food lovers discovered to everyone’s surprise that the brioche in a Chardin painting is burnt. The enlightening meal led curator Allard to invite Guy Savoy and Sciolino on a tour of the food paintings in the Louvre, reflecting centuries of kitchens, still lifes and farmyards.

“The museum is the conscience of society.”
– Laurence des Cars, President of the Louvre Museum

The Louvre’s artwork collection includes almost 500,000 pieces, meticulously archived. The majority is stored in a Conservation Center in Northern France. With treasures ranging from antiquity to the Napoleonic era, representing every continent, the museum’s diversity appeals to all tastes. Although the Louvre policy is to collect paintings created before 1848 with a few exceptions, the museum works hard to stay relevant for new generations of visitors. In the back half of the book, Sciolino reflects on the Louvre’s lesser-known artwork, raising questions about the plight of stolen art during WW2, the role of female artists and women in art, as well as Blackness and queerness interpreted by artists.

Sciolino shared with INSPIRELLE that she has two favorite spots in the Louvre: “the long escalator in the Richelieu Wing when the sun streams through the angled glass of the pyramid and projects dapples of light onto the façade of the wing on the other side,” and a “quiet, peaceful room in the Flore wing” where she can hold in her hands unframed original engravings, drawings, pastels and watercolors by the world’s famous artists.

For Sciolino, the works of art within the walls of the Louvre are “beauty for eternity”.

“They have taken me around the world and have shown me how history was made, how kings ruled, how lives were lived, how wars were fought, how myths were told.”

Reading Adventures in the Louvre may be an even better experience after visiting the museum. Why? When you read Sciolino’s colorful descriptions and fascinating anecdotes, you will want to return to the Louvre again and again to revisit what you saw and discover so much of what you missed.

Fascination, Sciolino believes, is the beginning of how to fall in love with the world’s greatest museum.