MINISTER RACHDA DATI UNVEILS SUPPORT FROM M.LADREIT LACHARRIERE RESTORING LOUVRE

USPA NEWS - Louvre Museum: Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, announces exceptional support from patron Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière for the exterior design and the entrance through the Lions Gate of the Gallery of Five Continents.

On Tuesday, March 25, Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, Laurence des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre Museum, and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, President of the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Foundation, formalized through the signing of a patronage agreement the exceptional support from the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Foundation for the exterior design of the Gallery of Five Continents, located in the Louvre Museum.

As the exclusive patron of the exterior design and the entrance through the Lions Gate of the Gallery of Five Continents, the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Foundation once again affirms its unwavering commitment to ensuring universal accessibility to the national collections.

The Lions Gate will reopen on November 26, 2025, in a completely new configuration, after several months of renovations. Entirely redesigned in keeping with the original architectural design, the reception areas will better meet public expectations: the creation of self-service changing rooms, a new reception area, a café, accessibility standards, and the opening of the door onto the Quai des Tuileries. They will provide quick and seamless access to the non-Western masterpieces of the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, presented in the new Galerie des Cinq Continents (formerly known as the "Pavillon des Sessions") on the ground floor, and to the Italian and Spanish painting collections on display upstairs.

Since 1995, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, a major patron of the Louvre, has continuously supported the museum through Fimalac, the Culture & Diversity Corporate Foundation, and the Foundation that bears his name. This support was mainly for the restoration of masterpieces in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, exhibitions and museum redevelopments such as the restoration of the Borghese Gladiator, the restoration of the Venus Genitrix, the exhibition “2000 Years of Creation…

According to Antiquity”, the museum redevelopment of the Manège Hall, the “Porphyry” exhibition, the “Praxiteles” exhibition, the restoration of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the acquisition of the Medici Venus, the “Paris-Athens” exhibition, and the educational program “Les Mardis du Louvre”.

Rachida DATI, Minister of Culture, declared: “Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière’s support for the redevelopment of the Pavillon des Sessions, now the Galerie des cinq continents, demonstrates once again his commitment to promoting the arts and civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Exhibited in a new shared space, works from the Louvre’s collections and those from the collections of the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac and the Musée Guimet enter into a fruitful dialogue in which art becomes the vector of a sensitive encounter between cultures. Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière’s patronage is decisive in this project. I am grateful for his unwavering support for the Musée du Louvre for thirty years, as well as for the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac since its opening.”

Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, President of the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Foundation, said: "Given my ties to the Louvre for 30 years and to the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac since its opening, it was only natural that the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Foundation should finance the entire construction of the new Galerie des cinq continents.

This ambitious project is indeed a continuation of the work I have always carried out to promote France's cultural influence and foster dialogue between works belonging to different cultures, this time within the world's greatest museum." Source: Communique, by French Ministry of Culture as it was delivered in full