The Louvre-Lens

The the Louvre-Lens is an antenna of the Musée of the Louvre which will be located at Lens. The new building, under control of work of the District council of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, will accommodate semi-permanent exposures representative of the whole of the collections of the museum of Louvre, renewed regularly. It will also accommodate temporary exhibitions of national or international level.

Its opening is planned for 2010.

The new establishment, known as the Louvre-Lens will have the statute of “museum of France” and will be placed under the authority of the public corporation of the museum of Louvre. Its operating expenses will mainly be taken of load by the area (60%), with the assistance of the general advice of the Pas-de-Calais (10%) like that of the town of Lens and the Communaupole (10% together). These communities will take part in the same proportions in the initial investment.

The president of the Louvre-Lens delegation is Jean-Marc Legrand.

History of its construction

The cabinet of architecture SANAA of Japanese Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa was designated the September 26th 2005 by the standing committee of the district council Nord-Pas-de-Calais, owner building of the building, to build the Louvre-Lens. Its cost was then estimated at 117 M€ including all taxes (value January 2005).

The landscape designer on this project is Catherine Mosbach (of Mosbach Paysagistes) who already carried out many projects such as the Saint-Denis channel, the Botanical garden of Bordeaux or the botanical garden of Monaco.

The preliminary draft was validated in May 2007. It results in a simplification of the project (reduction of glazed surfaces) and an increase in the cost of objective which passes to 127 M€.

Description

This museum will be spread on 20.000 m ², of which 5.500 m ² will be intended for the presentation of works of Article 3.800 m ² will be devoted to deposits of major pieces coming from the Parisian museum (between 600 and 800 works)

The temporary exhibitions will profit from 1700 m ². Each year, one of enter they will be of international dimension (in collaboration with large foreign museums). The reception, the activities teaching, an auditorium, a media library, reserves (visible and worth visiting), laboratories and offices will divide the remainder of this museum of the 21e century.

External bond

Official site
On the site of the area Nord-Pas-de-Calais
nonofficial Site (of the dream to reality - by ''' NordMag ''')
Lens-Tourism Site presenting the future Louvre de Lens

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