The Louvre Museum is located in Paris and is one of the biggest museums of the world. The Louvre Museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, which was built in the twelfth century by Philip II. Philip II was one of the most successful Kings of France during the medieval period. He belonged to the Capet Dynasty, and made several developments in France. The Louvre Palace remained the residence of the future Kings of France for around five hundred years following the reign of Philip II.

It was only in the second half of the seventeenth century that King Louis XIV shifted from this fort-like palace to the Palace of Versailles, which was built introducing the Italian architecture following the French Renaissance. King Louis XIV valued art, and after shifting his residence to the new palace, he converted the Louvre Palace into a museum showcasing the rich collections of art, sculptors, etc. that he and his ancestors had amassed. The Louvre Museum was also a place where the French national academy of paintings and sculpture performed its various activities from the last decade of seventeenth until end of the eighteenth century. Finally, it was officially declared to be a national museum at the end of the eighteenth century, and remains so today.

The Louvre Museum today has more than 30,000 items displayed out of over 300,000 that compose its collection, some of which are as many as eight thousand years old or more. The collection of objects displayed by Louis XIV increased several times during the rule of Napoleon I and III, and in the starting period of the twentieth century. These items can be classified into Paintings, Sculptures, sketches, drawings, prints, and antiquities belonging to cultures that include but are not limited to Greek, Roman, Islamic, Egyptian, Oriental and Etruscan. They are placed in eight different departments and arranged in an ascending sequence from ancient times to the twentieth century.

The Egyptian department has one of the oldest collections, which dates back to seven thousand years ago. There are more than fifty thousand objects belonging to the Egyptian culture, the majority of which were introduced to the Louvre Museum by Napoleon I. Some of the objects in the departments featuring Greek and Roman art are over three thousand years old, and belong mainly to the earlier cultures that existed in the region where modern France exists. The Islamic department has a few ancient collections while major objects belong to the period after the tenth century. The Louvre Museum has some world renowned masterpieces, such as The Mona Lisa, a painting created by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci during his visit to France in the time of the French Renaissance.