Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum

New York Times contributing writer Sciolino (The Only Street in Paris) takes readers on an affectionate and expressive tour through the labyrinthine halls of the “best-known and yet least understood museum in the world.” Combining history, interviews, and firsthand experience, she discusses famous artworks (including the 2,200-year-old Greek sculpture of Nike); explores how the Mona Lisa—which became a “global superstar” after being stolen in 1911— “enslaves and empowers” the museum with its complex logistical and financial hurdles and pull on first-time visitors, 80% of whom visit primarily to see the painting; and delves into the sometimes-exclusionary nature of art history exemplified in clashes between the museum and contemporary culture (in 2018 the museum staged Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s music video for “Apeshit”—viewed by some as a showy display of wealth and by others as an empowering attempt to open the “historically white space” to a broader audience). Undergirding the author’s conversations with curators, art historians, and museum guards is her own appealingly intimate—if occasionally gushing—narrative of falling in love with the museum and in the process discovering the “sensual dialogue [that] emerges when human beings discover the wonder in works of art.” The result is a charmingly effusive love letter sure to delight art history buffs. Photos. (Apr.)