Musée d'Orsay

The Louvre museum in Paris announced on April 23 that it planned to organize yoga and sport sessions in its famed galleries as part of a city-wide cultural program ahead of the Olympics.

With Asian visitors still largely absent, major Paris museums struggled to regain pre-pandemic numbers in 2022, despite a huge recovery from the previous year, official figures showed on Jan. 5.

The Louvre, the world's most visited museum, welcomed 7.8 million people last year, a 170-percent increase on 2021, but still down 19 percent on 2019.

A major exhibition of impressionist art opened on Oct. 12 at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, featuring works from masters such as Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir.

Billed as one of the most significant exhibitions on the 19th century art movement ever held outside France, it features more than 150 works on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

The French senate on Feb. 15 approved the return of 15 artworks looted from Jews during World War II, as part of efforts by the government to accelerate restitutions.

The vote authorizes public museums holding the works, including the world-famous Musee d'Orsay in Paris, to hand over the property to the heirs of the original owners.

The Acropolis Museum in Athens ranked No 6 in TripAdvisor's annual Travelers Choice Awards for 2018, coming one spot above the Louvre in Paris and one below Madrid's Prado.

Designed by Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi and inaugurated in 2009, the building, says the review, "is as stunning as the treasures it houses."