Louvre exhibit arrives at the High Museum
World famous museum forms artistic alliance with Atlanta
By KIRSTEN TAGAMI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/05/2006
The world-famous paintings, sculptures, drawings and objets d'art from Paris' Louvre museum are all but
ready for their Atlanta close-up.
Celebrations at the High Museum of Art are just days away — and in some cases, sold out. And VIP tours
are beginning: the French ambassador to the United States has flown in from Washington for a private
preview today.
LOUIE FAVORITE/AJC Staff
(ENLARGE)
Gene Clifton (from left), Brian Kelly and
Caroline Prinzivalloi prepare 'Atalante'
for display as part of the upcoming
Louvre Atlanta exhibit. The multimilliondollar museum exchange runs through
October 2009.
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LOUVRE ATLANTA
Duration: October 2006 through
2009.
Cost of the exchange: $18
million, including $6.5 million to
renovate part of the Louvre.
Year one: The Royal Collections
will feature 166 works, including
Raphael's famous portrait of
courtier Baldassare Castiglione.
Group sales: 35,300 so far,
including 27,300 schoolchildren.
Individual ticket sales: 1,407.
Demographics: About 40 percent
of visitors to the High's special
exhibitions come from outside
metro Atlanta.
GETTING IN
Tickets are recommended, even
for members, to enter the Louvre
Atlanta exhibit. Tickets are timed;
250 people will be allowed in at
one time. Reserve tickets at
www.louvreatlanta.org or by
calling 404-733-5000. Tickets are
$15 (free for members) and
include an audio tour.
EVENTS LEADING UP TO
OPENING DAY:
Thursday night: Le Gala
Royale. Sold out.
Friday: Lecture, "The Louvre
Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond,"
by Louvre Museum director Henri
Loyrette. 3 p.m., Symphony Hall,
Woodruff Arts Center. Tickets
$15 (members $10)
Saturday: Opening fete: $150
per person. Space available.
Sunday: Members' family
preview. Sold out.
Oct. 14: Louvre Atlanta Opening
Day Celebration,
10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
After years of planning, Louvre Atlanta — an unprecedented loan of
artwork from the world's most famous museum — is set to open to the
public Oct. 14.
The $18 million collaboration, for which the High is raising money
privately, brings such European masterpieces as Raphael's "Portrait of
Baldassare Castiglione" and Diego Velazquez's "The Infanta Margarita"
to the recently expanded High. The museums' three-year deal includes a
payment of $6.5 million to the Louvre — the legendary museum created
from a collection of palaces in the heart of Paris — to help restore its
18th-century decorative arts gallery.
As he arrived in Atlanta Wednesday evening, the French ambassador,
Jean-David Levitte, said he was looking forward to seeing the exhibit,
which he called, "a unique example of innovative cooperation between
one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. and the world's biggest
museum."
High director Michael Shapiro, whose longstanding professional
relationship with Louvre director Henri Loyrette was a key to the
collaboration, was ebullient Wednesday.
"The years of hard work to develop this partnership are coming to fruition
as we put [on] the finishing touches," Shapiro said. "Paris has truly
arrived on Peachtree Street, and we are eager to welcome our French
friends and all of Atlanta."
So far, advance bookings for group visits to the first year of Louvre
Atlanta have been strong, at about 35,300 people, mostly groups of
schoolchildren. Several members-only events set for the next week are
sold out, including Sunday's family member preview, which had a limit of
3,000 patrons.
Individual tickets to the first year's exhibits — "Kings as Collectors," "The
King's Drawings" and "The Decorative Art of Kings" — priced at $15 for
the general public, stand at about 1,400 so far, but have been picking up
in recent days, said Susan Clark, the museum's director of marketing
and communications. She added: "We expect to see this increase
dramatically as we progress toward opening."
As with most special exhibits, tickets to Louvre Atlanta are timed,
meaning only a certain number of visitors — 250 in this case — are
allowed in at one time. So anyone planning to see the exhibits, including
members, would do well to book tickets in advance, Clark said. Every ticket includes the option of an audio
tour — with different narration for adults and children — and access to the rest of the museum.
Artistic abundance
Clark advised visitors to get to the museum as early as possible on weekends, and later in the day on
weekdays, after school groups have thinned out.
Events leading up to the exhibit opening include a lecture by Louvre director Loyrette Friday afternoon at
Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center, and a $150-per-person "opening fete" Saturday evening at the
High.
French restaurants around Atlanta are planning themed dinners and special drinks, and hotels have begun
selling Louvre Atlanta packages. Typically, about 40 percent of visitors to special exhibitions at the High
come from outside metro Atlanta, Clark said.
The Four Seasons Hotel, around the corner from the High, has had considerable interest in its Louvre
Atlanta packages, which begin Oct. 14, said the hotel's public relations director, Marsha Middleton.
Some guests who have booked around the exhibit's opening are coming from regional cities such as
Birmingham, Nashville and Chattanooga, she said. But people who live in Atlanta's suburbs also are booking
rooms and making a weekend of their visit to the museum, Middleton said.
The Four Seasons' Louvre Atlanta package begins at $360 a night and includes VIP tickets to the exhibit,
which allows ticketholders to bypass any lines.
City gets in the spirit
Also, the first in a series of $500-per-person Paris-themed dinners at the hotel — hosted by the High's
deputy director Philip Verre and including private, after-hours tours of the exhibit — has sold eight of the 10
spots available for the Oct. 26 event, she said.
At the less-expensive Courtyard Atlanta Midtown at Georgia Tech, only two Louvre Atlanta packages have
sold so far, said sales coordinator Kristi Bertucci. But she expects sales to pick up closer to the Oct. 14
opening. Rates start at $149.
The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, will serve "artistic" champagne cocktails starting Oct. 14 to
celebrate the event. And the French restaurant Au Pied de Cochon, inside the
InterContinental hotel in Buckhead, will offer 20 percent off a la carte items for diners
with tickets to Louvre Atlanta, said food and beverage director Bixente Pery . The hotel's
Louvre package, at $429 a night, has booked 10 rooms so far, said spokeswoman Molly
Parrish.