WEBVTT - How The Louvre Works 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.920 Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:12.400 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:15.480 Josh Clark. There's Charles to Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there, 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:21.480 and it's stuff you should know. Okay, already yeah, uh, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.360 this was a Josh Clark article. Correct, it was from 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.200 a while ago. Yeah, how the louver works? Yeah, this 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:33.159 is already. Apologize in advance for the French pronunciations. I'm 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:35.400 gonna try in best. I am too, but it makes 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.760 you sound obnoxious for some reason. Not you, but no, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.639 I know it's me. You know, if you really go, 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.239 you know, French with everything, it makes you sound like 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:47.040 a church. Lu Is it Lua? Or is it lou? Lou? 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:52.520 Is it lou? You'd say it like that. I'm gonna 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.360 try as well, but I mean it's yeah, it's we're 0:00:55.360 --> 0:01:01.280 paying homage to the mother tongue. The museum. We're talking 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.960 about the seat of culture and art. Yeah, for centuries 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:11.679 now biggest busiest museum in the world. Yeah, and apparently 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.120 it's gotten much busier in the last couple of decades. Yeah. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:17.440 I saw eight point eight million visitors a year at 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.000 this point, nine point eight and two thousand two thousand ten, 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.560 it was nine point eight that was the high mark. Uh, 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:26.440 two thousand thirteen it was nine point three million, Okay, 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.080 so it's the correct the nine Yeah, but back in 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.200 nine nine it was three million. So they're up like 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.560 almost seven million people a year. Yeah. And I've seen 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.600 seventy thousand works of art and thirty five thousand, so 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.360 I think they have thirty on display in seventy. They 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.280 got a whole other half that they just sit on 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:52.120 and swap out. They're whimsy exactly, They're French whimsy and uh, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.760 the French whimsy. Uh, the French whim that directs that 0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:00.840 now is a guy named Jean Luke Martinez, the French whim. Yeah. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.120 Well he's in charge of the whip, right, Yeah, and 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.560 he's got his work cut out for him, because you know, 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:11.359 that whole recession hit everybody, including the loof. Yeah. It 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.960 costs twelve euros for the permanent collection, thirteen for the 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.840 Hall Napoleon. Right. It's closed Tuesdays, but it's open free 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.480 to the public on Sundays for half the year. Yeah, 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.160 and then I best Steal Day, which if you're listening 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.320 to this when it comes out, it's coming up you 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.440 can get into the loop for free. Yeah, I think 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:38.200 it's free during the not I think from up until March, 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.880 and then from April through like September. It's not free 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.079 because there's sort of like the big summer travel months. Yeah, 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.400 and the stick to you And I think it's free 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:54.239 if you're eighteen to under eighteen, and then eighteen to 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.840 twenty five. If you're from the EU, I think you 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.160 can get in for free. And if you're an artist 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.960 or student, come right in. Yeah, for free. All right, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.799 So that's the podcast. We should probably say what we're 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:08.720 talking about too, like the ten people out there who 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.520 don't know what the louvi is please. The louver Is 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.640 Um a world famous art museum situated in Paris, and 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.440 it's had a very long life. It was actually first 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:24.200 built in I believe eleven ninety the Compecian ruler of France, 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:30.000 Philippe august those Frenzy Uh. Philippe said, um, I was 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.560 on the edge of town at the time. Yeah, he said, 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.160 I need to protect my stuff, so I'm gonna build 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.280 a medieval fortress, and so I'm gonna build a museum. 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.640 These are the medieval times. I'll build a fortress and 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.880 later on people will call it a medieval fortress. That's right. 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.560 It was just your standard fortress, had a moat, had 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.960 to keep which will figure in later because they ended 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:52.960 up finding that junk, which is kind of neat. It's 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.240 very neat. I haven't seen it. I don't remember if 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.880 I saw her while writing this at this article, like, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.320 I found pictures of it and came to think that 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.280 I thought I sadly went to the front door and 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.240 did not go inside. You didn't go in the louver. No, 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.640 pretty neat. I told you my whole backpacking trip. Like, 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.880 we literally couldn't afford We were eating like apples for lunch. Uh, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.160 So we did not pay to go into almost anything. Right, Well, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.560 you're blowing all your money on dinner, huh, pretty much 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:30.279 for lunch and sure for dinner. Yeah, Holland put a 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.560 dent in our finances. You didn't go in, but at 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:38.000 least you wanted to write I did, um. So, like 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.440 you said, it was a fortress for many years, and 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.240 about a hundred and fifty years later, it was not 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:45.960 on the edge of the city, which is not a 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:47.960 good place for fortress to be in the middle of 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.400 a city because Paris grew around it, and they said, 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:52.960 you can't really have a fortress in the middle of city. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.440 It doesn't do us much good. So let's build a 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.960 big wall around everything, around all of Paris. So now 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:03.560 the Louver was a wall within walls. It stopped kind 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.680 of serving its purpose. Like you said, I think it 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:07.880 served as like a prison for a while, that kind 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.880 of thing. But then it was ultimately abandoned for a 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.799 number of years. And then it happened a few times 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.800 throughout history. It's been loved and neglected like time and 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.119 time again. Actually fell into pretty bad disrepair at one point, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.440 Um the in the fourteenth century. I had it wrong 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.200 in the article, but I went in and corrected it. 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.160 In the fourteenth century, UM, after the Louvid just been 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:38.320 neglected for a while and unused, um the ruler Charles 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.320 the five said, hey, this would make a pretty good 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.760 palatial residence for me. So yeah, so I'm gonna take 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.919 this ancient medieval fortress and turn it into the royal residence. 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.640 And he did it. Charles the sixth did it, and 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.120 then it fell out of fashion for another hundred years. Yeah, 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.920 the loop just went back into a state of neglected. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:05.240 But it had taken a first step toward becoming the 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.800 Louver Museum. Going from fortress to residents had to have 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:14.440 helped not just a residence, a residence for a king moderately. Yeah, yeah, they, 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.599 I mean they tricked it out right. Then, like you said, 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:21.480 it fell into disrepair and neglect for another century. Then 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.719 it became fashionable again. It's like people just kept forgetting 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.520 about the Louver, and then every couple of generations the 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:29.400 new king would be like, oh, the lou I guess 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.800 I'll move in there. Yeah, that's kind of how it happened. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:37.320 Chase out the goats, bringing my tapestry. Uh. So after 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.760 that hundred years, Francois one fixes it up even more. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.800 He brings in his decorator, and they got some architects 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.560 and said, let's expand it, actually make it bigger and 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.760 build new wings and remodel the old stuff. He flipped this, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.839 uh fortress. What's the name of the show? Uh? And 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:58.839 he did a great job with that, and Louis the 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.800 thirteenth and fourteen said, this is fantastic. I think we're 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:03.880 gonna let's keep this up. Yeah, We're gonna kick it 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:08.279 up even higher. Um until oh, Versailles built, and that's 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.000 actually way more awesome. So we're gonna live there now. Yeah, 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.640 And wherever the king went, that's where all of them 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:20.640 aristocrats went as well, Like they hung out the court 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.160 hung out with the king, and so like if the 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.480 king was hanging out on Versailles, it was terribly unfashionable 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.000 to be sticking around Paris. Yeah, that's what happened to love. 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.560 It just fell out of fashion with the kings. Yeah, 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.360 and when they went to Versailles, it was unfinished and 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.680 they kind of left it that way, and then that 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:40.720 was when it got kind of beat up. I mean 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.840 they had it was basically abandoning a construction project in 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.040 the middle, so they didn't have roofs over some of 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.840 these rooms, but a lot of the louver had been 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.280 built out have been well appointed. And even though like 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.160 by the time Versailles was built, it was left again 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.040 in neglect the found nation for the building itself, the 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.680 house had been built. Yeah, you know, I wonder when 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.920 they're going to neglect it next. I don't know if 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.320 it's gonna happen again. It might take the collapse of 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.840 society for that to happen again. Yeah, Well maybe that'll happen. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.560 Here's open. Oh yeah, you pulling for the collapse? Yeah, 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.520 why not? You're looking for a roadlike situation. Yeah, I'd 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:22.280 like to see how I do? How I fair? You 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.880 want to meet Robert Duvall is what it is? Yeah? 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.640 Pretty much? Is he did? No, it's Dennis Hopper doing 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.000 just fine. Yeah. Man, he's married to a young lady 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.080 dancing the salsa. He saws us. Yeah, he made a 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.600 movie or tango. I think he made a movie about it. Ethan, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.400 that's Antonio benderis thinking he made a movie called Assassination Tango, 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.760 which I have where he was like, I think he 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.200 was a hired killer who don't say it? Yeah no, 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:52.720 uh huh man because of his love with the dango, 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.160 Oh my goodness, and called that a passion project. Get 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.640 slash box off his poison. Well, man alive. I'm gonna 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:03.880 delete that from my memory bank. I wonder if he 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.920 was like, you know, what hasn't been done yet? And 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.160 no one around him said, and it hadn't been numb 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.719 for a right, God bless him. Um. All right, so 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.800 let's flash forward a little bit to the midst seventeenth century. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.960 Did you get that date? Right? I did. It was 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.960 just cyn uh. And this is when things kind of 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.840 this is when the lou really started, made the initial 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:33.080 transition towards the seat of culture in Paris, because they 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:38.280 housed the three academies there that were form the academy. 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.679 You take it, since you're all okay, um, there is 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:49.160 the Academy de Scripture. Okay, so the Academy of Painting 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:53.640 and Sculpture, Visual Arts. Yeah. Uh, the Academy Frances. That's 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.800 pretty easy. That's the official body of the French language. Yeah, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.920 which kind of holds the French language hosta like, the 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:06.800 French language doesn't change unless this governing body says it does. Yeah, 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.560 it's all prescriptive ist. It's very prescriptive ist language, whereas 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:11.960 here in the States you can just make up a 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:13.840 word and put on the internet and if enough people use, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.920 it's an urban dictionary and it's a thing, and they're 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:22.120 definitely prescription ists to like drive crazy, but t s. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.360 I wonder if they have a dictionary about that for 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.560 French slang. Maybe yeah, I'll bet, but I'll bet the 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.040 Academy Frances hates it. I'm sure you're ready for the 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.800 third one. I'm so ready This is the Academy days 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:42.960 in scription a Bell letter UH, and apparently that is 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.960 deals with humanities, history and philosophy. So they founded these 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:54.319 in the mid seventeenth century to basically make frances h 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.560 culturally significant and snooty as they could. Well they I mean, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:00.840 they're trying to protect their culture, is what they were. 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.200 I mean, France had become very like this seed of 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.560 culture around Europe especially, but also around the world thanks 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.200 to the Age of Exploration, and they were like, let's 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:16.079 let's codify this's cement it and they did. But they 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.520 moved those three academies into the Louver, like no one's 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.840 over there. So almost awesome, right exactly, So almost as 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.800 literal as figurative language can get. They moved the seat 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:33.880 of world culture into the loop. So that, combined with 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.600 the fact that the Louver was pretty awesome and decked out, 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.520 really laid the groundwork for the modern period to come along. Yeah, 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.040 and I didn't realize this, but they once academies moved in, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.199 they started what would end up being sort of like 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:53.280 an ex art exhibition with the UH. And they basically 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.160 would have an exhibition a salon, and they would trot 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.120 out these cultural artifacts and people would come see them 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.400 and I guess someone said, hey, this is kind of 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.360 like a museum, right, and they said that's a great 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.360 idea and it should be free. Yeah, And and these 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.240 were all really huge ideas. The fact, I mean these 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.760 were from the king's collection, and the reason that these 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:15.760 academies were able to get their hands on it and 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:19.160 put them on exhibit for the public for free was 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.040 because the monarchy was like, yeah, please don't depose me. 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.800 It's cool. It's cool word democracy now. But I'm just 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.400 here being rich. So everybody, whatever you want to do, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.160 if you want to show people, that's cool. And that's 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.120 how the Louver as a museum was born, was from 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:41.280 this French revolution, coexisting with the monarchs art collection and 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.680 showing it to people for free. That's right. As Louis 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:50.480 twenty six bowl he said, he wanted to be a 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.280 place for gathering together all the monuments of the sciences 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.760 and arts. Just don't cut my head off, that's right. Um. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:12:59.800 And so at that point it was like we said 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:01.760 it was free for all they wanted it to that 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.840 was the people to gather there. Yeah, and this is 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.360 what is when it was officially established as the French 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.360 National Museum, and they did cut Louis head off, so 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.880 it didn't work. No, it was had a couple of names. 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.680 It was the Music Francais at first in the Music 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:26.280 Central the Arts, and then the Music de Antichrist muse. Napoleon, Yeah, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.000 he came along after the French Revolution deposed the monarchy 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.560 and said, let's try something different. How about I'll be 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.080 the emperor, that the king the emperor, and I'll try 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:38.640 to conquer as much of the world as I can. 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.360 And it was pretty successful at it. But being French 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.720 and coming from a France where the Louve existed already, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.160 now that all these different academies and the idea of 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.320 France owning art. When he would go conquer the land, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.840 and we're talking substantial lands here like Austria, Spain, uh, Italy, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.280 I think Italy was where he got a lot of 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.160 the art. He would say, sign this treaty and buried 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.320 in the treaty was you we give France control of 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.959 all the art. And so Napoleon would go in and conquer. 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:13.440 And then the director of the Louver at the time, 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.400 a guy named um oh what was his last His 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.200 last name is Dinon um yeah, he was. He was 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.440 the curator basically that he would send around and he 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.160 would be like, I'd like this, and I'd like this. Yeah. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.040 After Napoleon's armies conquered a place the treaty was signed, 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.160 Dinon would go in and just grab stuff for the loof. 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:34.560 This would look great on that south wall, don't you think. 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:37.520 And Napoleon said the Mona Lisa would look great in 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:43.280 my bedroom, which is where you put it, didn't. Yeah. Yeah, 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.880 we'll get more into the Mona Lisa more later on 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:50.000 because it has a pretty interesting history. Well, before we 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.400 keep going on any of this, Chuck, I think we 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.600 should take a message break. I'm starting to steam up, alight, 0:14:55.720 --> 0:15:09.440 it's so good, all right, steamy? Yeah, wipe off those glasses. 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.080 I'm not wearing glasses. Your contacts are fogging up. I've 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:19.480 never seen that happen. Um, So we're the modern history now, right, 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.960 I would guess. So we should say that Napoleon was 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:28.240 eventually exiled and he his museum music to Napoleon was 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:34.080 changed finally officially to the MUSICI de louve Um, which 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.040 it has has been since. And I think eighteen fifteen 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:41.080 is when that happened. Um, and then yeah, in in 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.440 modern times, we should say that Napoleon gives a good 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.520 example of one of the ways that the louver um 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:51.600 acquired a mass so many pieces in its collection. Punder 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.880 sure we talked about Egypt Egyptology, a lot, a lot 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.480 of that stuff ended up at the Louver until Egypt 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.120 said I'd like that back. Yeah, and even then the 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:06.440 lu said, well how about some of it? Um. And 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:11.200 remember the guy who the Frenchman who cracked them the 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.640 Rosetta Stone and we did the Rosetta Stone episode, Tom 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.480 Hanks Campion, Campion or Champion. Yeah. Uh, he was the 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.800 loose director of the egypt collection. Oh yeah, yeah, that 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.520 makes sense. Yeah, it really does, because I mean, very 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.800 few people knew more about it than that guy. Um. 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.600 So along the way in the nineteenth century, the Louver 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.400 was not just a museum, but it was also a 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.400 a kind of a working studio where people would artists 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.480 would great artists would go and study and practice and 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:46.120 paint and sculpt which is pretty neat um Impressionists especially 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:51.120 have still have a lot of work there and all 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.200 the old stuff is still there. And it wasn't until 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.840 when they said let's split this up because there's a 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:02.080 fancy new museum across the river, muse a day or say, 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.320 And they said, why don't we just do it chronologically 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.320 and said anything after you guys can have. I guess 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:13.160 that that's the modern collection UM, and anything else old 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.560 we're gonna hang on too. And so the the Louve 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.240 kind of said, we're going to keep all the Hellenic 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:25.920 Roman um Renaissance. Renaissance is huge, all that stuff, and 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:30.160 and we should say, um, these collections that the Louve 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.920 got its hands on, UM, it wasn't just from plunder. 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:37.040 A lot of it was from the kings that had 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.480 amassed their royal collections that were basically taken from them 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.280 for the French people during the French Revolution UM, most 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.800 notably Francois the First, and he was the French king 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.520 during the height of the Renaissance, and he used to 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:58.960 accept donations to his collection from artists themselves. So like 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:03.640 the michael Angelo was the slave the sculpture michael Angelo 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.000 gave that to France Fis the First. So like a 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.600 lot of these pieces in the Lews collection like are 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:14.639 like they belong there. Some were plundered from Egypt, some 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:19.280 were plundered from during the Holocaust, and then some were 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.280 bought to like Napoleon bought a collection from the Italians 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.840 for like twelve million francs. Yeah, which is a lot 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.639 of dough. But um, that was the borgeous collection. Uh, 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.960 close to seven pieces from Greece and Rome. I guess 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.480 it was worth the money. That wasn't his money anyone, 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:37.680 he didn't care, right, Yeah, it's like I just stole 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.119 all this money. I don't not just give it to 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:44.960 you for that stuff from from Italy. Ironically enough, Uh, 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.680 World War two came along, which posted a real challenge 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.679 to art in general. Um, I haven't seen the monuments men. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.000 Have you seen that? No, I haven't heard. It's not 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.840 very good, despite the fact that it should be. You know, 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:58.960 I've heard the same thing, like all these great people 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.320 are in it, and it's still not very good. But 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:07.200 it's supposedly. Um, the Rape of Europa, the documentary that 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:11.480 it's based on, is supposed to be very good. Unsurprisingly. Yeah, 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.919 that's usually the case, but not always. Ill and I 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:16.560 also have to say this has nothing to do with 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.280 the Louf. But have you seen The Art of the Steel? Yes? God, 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:26.440 is such a good documentary, super good about Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, Philadelphia. Yeah, 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.520 how the city like stole an art collection? Yeah, I 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.440 mean it's super interesting. It's just go see it. I 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.400 think it's on Netflix that I think you can get 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.800 it anywhere. It's just a really good documentary. Yeah, agreed. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.120 Art documentaries, man, there's nothing scizzily or there's a lot 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.720 of good ones. Actually. And I'm not even like super 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.320 art guy. You know I'm not either. I'm just trying 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:50.560 to pronounce French here. Well I say I'm not super 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:54.439 art guy. I love museums and I just don't have 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:59.199 the schooling. You don't talk about it. I just know 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.080 what I like to look at, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.800 you know who is good at that? If you don't 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.240 know what you're doing but you want to learn. There's 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.720 an old PBS series called Sister Wendy, and she was 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:16.240 this nun bride of Christ lifelong right, who was one 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.400 of the foremost experts in art criticism and understanding art 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:25.280 and was also exceptionally good at explaining it in lay terms. 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:28.920 And you just watch this lady's like shows and she's 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.080 pointing out stuff in paintings that you're like, I didn't 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.000 even realize that there was there visually, let alone what 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.840 it meant. And she's just so good at explaining. So 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:43.720 if you want to know more about art, especially classic art, um, 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.200 but don't know what you're doing, she's a great place 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:48.560 to start. And I guarantee it's all over the youtubes 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.439 and stuff for free, because I'm excited now, sister Wendy. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.560 All right, you'll love her, sweet man. PBS. They just 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.280 get it right, don't they. Yes, they do, go um 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.480 All right, So where were we World War two? Nazis? Yeah, 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.400 the Nazis they invaded Paris, of course, and they emptied 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.000 up the Louver and I'm sorry. Before they invaded, the 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.439 French people said we need to get rid of this stuff, 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:14.639 so they gave it to a bunch of rich people 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:18.199 who hid them at their various vacation homes. And it 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.639 worked pretty well. They couldn't take everything, obviously that they 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:23.920 moved all the stuff out of the louver. The French did, 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.000 and then when the Nazis came and found an empty louve, 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:29.960 they said, well, we're plundering a lot of art around 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.440 the world, so let's just use the louve as our repository. Yeah, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:35.840 and they literally like six massive rooms in the Louver 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.000 were like packing and shipping of art. It became a 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.960 warehouse essentially. Um and they called that the Louver sequestra 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:50.520 San Wait, that's just English sequestration and um, yeah, that's 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:52.680 that was a pretty dark time, I would say for 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.560 the Louver. It was. It was also a very shady 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.760 time too, because um, in the nineties, there was a 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.480 Puerto Rican journal list Um I don't remember his name, 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.879 but I read a good interview with him, it's in 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:09.000 the Lots More Information section of this article, who basically 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:11.879 started doing some sniffing around. So he heard at some 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:16.800 party that like of Nazi art that was looted had 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.040 never been returned, and he was like, what that's that's astounding. 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.439 It's a terrible number. Just sort of looking in and 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.280 more and more and more, and a lot of that 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.639 art that had been brought into the Louver by the 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.120 Nazis hadn't made its way back out after the Nazis 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:35.200 were defeated. Oops. So the Loops collection had a substantial 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:39.640 amount of Nazi looted art from you know, Jewish families 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:41.480 that have been killed in the Holocaust that might still 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.159 have some survivors and the museum. And it's not just 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.560 the Loop, but you know, it's a dark spot on 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.040 a lot of European museum's history that in the art 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:52.439 world in general, that a lot of art that was 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.680 stolen by the Nazis was nobody made any any attempts 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.359 to return it after the war. They just kind of 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:03.600 held onto it. That's despicable. Well, as journalists from Puerto 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.560 Rico got to the bottom of it, called the Loup 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.000 out and and the nineties, the Louver started being like, 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:12.960 oh crazy, yeah, we do have let's find the owners 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:15.840 the rightful air. So they started giving them back. But 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:20.399 there's still apparently plenty of of um pieces in the Louver, 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.000 among many other museums. Again, uh, the Holocaust start is 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:26.400 what they call it. Yeah, are alluded not to the art. Yeah, 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:29.880 that's weird that it took this guy from it took 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:33.480 Jimmy San Juan, beat reporter from Puerto Rico. Well, you know, 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:36.280 it seems like museums, what do we talk about recently 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:41.880 went museum, We talked about repatriation. It seems like museums 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:48.920 are rightfully taking a beating in popular opinion because from 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:52.439 from you know, the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:54.680 the middle of the twenty century with Nazi looting. There 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:58.679 are a lot of shady things that museums did and 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:00.760 just no one talked about and they out away with it. 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:04.840