Museum art books are common staples in any exhibition's gift store and on coffee tables around the world, but The Louvre: All the Paintings (Black Dog & Leventhal) has one thing that no other art book can claim: every single painting from the museum's permanent collection.

J.P. Leventhal, publisher at Black Dog & Leventhal, said he wasn't sold on the idea of doing a book about the famed French museum, until he found out the details.

"Dirk Palm, of Palmedia Publishing, asked me whether I was interested in publishing a book on the Louvre. ‘Not particularly,' I said. ‘There are so many Louvre books.' Dirk went on to say that photographer Erich Lessing had photos of almost every painting that was on display in the museum. Then a light bulb went off in Dirk's head and in mine: why couldn't Erich go one small step yet giant leap forward and get all of the paintings in the permanent museum's collection?"

Lessing has been documenting arts culture for more than 50 years, and he set out to finish photographing all 3,022 paintings the museum permanently houses.

The book, which comes out on November 14 with a list price of $75, has a $125,000 marketing budget behind it featuring, among other things, a sweepstakes that will send the winner to the museum itself.

Liza Lucas, publicist at Goldberg McDuffie, says that though the book's price tag is a bit high, she's already received comments on what a great value it is. "Sure, $75 is a lot for a book, but with more than 3,000 paintings, nearly 800 pages, a navigational DVD, it's the next best thing to standing in front of the paintings at the museum itself."

The Louvre: All the Paintings includes 300-word essays by art historians Anja Grebe and Vincent Pomarède on 400 featured paintings, including works by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Da Vinci. Grebe and Pomarède, along with the Black Dog & Leventhal staff, selected the featured works.

"What is so fascinating about the book is the number of surprises and types of paintings that you never would have imagined were in existence," Leventhal said. "You can gaze at a painting like Georges de La Tour's Magdalene with the Night Light for a while, gaining a profound sense of appreciation for the beauty and the intense power of the loneliness and mood."

In addition to the included DVD that allows viewers to tour the museum, an app is being planned for tablets and smart phones, set to release after Christmas.