ABSTRACT
Exhibiting archaeological collections from the ancient Middle East next to fine art from Western Europe is a challenge for curators at the Louvre Museum. It requires dealing with various, often contradictory, factors: overall museum policy established for the whole institution, the historical nature of the building itself (a former royal palace), plus the fact that the ancient Middle East collection includes not only exceptional, artistic works, but also fragmentary and ordinary items telling us about often-forgotten cultures. Furthermore, the collection is visited by a large number of people with very different levels of knowledge. Questions raised about ways to exhibit ancient Middle Eastern artifacts in this particular context are discussed here, based on experiences in the Louvre’s permanent and temporary galleries.
