The enormous Antiquities collection practically forms a parallel museum of its own, taking up most of the Sully wing, other than the top floor, and creeping into Denon and Richelieu on the lower levels. The embarrassment of riches, a perennial problem for visitors to the Louvre, is at its most intractable here. The superb Egyptian collection reflects the longstanding French fascination with Egyptology, while the outstanding Greek and Roman collections date back to the eager acquisitions of François I, Richelieu and Mazarin. The so-called Oriental section, which presents a major collection of artefacts from the Near and Middle East, is relatively manageable in size.
Pages in section ‘Antiquities’: Oriental, Egyptian, Greek and Roman.
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