Gallery of the Five Continents

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Entrance to the Galerie des Cinq Continents Galerie des Cinq Continents (Louvre).jpg
Entrance to the Galerie des Cinq Continents

The Gallery of the Five Continents (French: Galerie des cinq continents) is a permanent exhibition space at the Louvre art museum in Paris, France. It has been dedicated to displaying works of art and material culture from across the five continents Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania in a unified museographical framework. The gallery opened on 3 December 2025, replacing the former Pavillon des Sessions and representing a newly designed institutional effort to present non-European artistic traditions alongside Western art in a global narrative of world cultures.

Contents

History

Former exhibition at the Pavillon des Sessions Pavillon des Sessions 01.jpg
Former exhibition at the Pavillon des Sessions

The space now known as the Gallery of the Five Continents occupies the former Pavillon des Sessions, a gallery within the Denon Wing of the Louvre originally constructed under the Second French Empire to host sessions of the French legislative assembly. The pavilion was repurposed in 2000 to exhibit works from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas drawn principally from the collections of the Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, reflecting a growing awareness in museum practice of the importance of presenting non-Western arts on an equal level with traditional Western narratives. [1] In late 2025, after renovations and a reimagined museography, the pavilion was inaugurated as the Gallery of the Five Continents. This transformation was funded in part through private sponsorship for enhancements to the entrance and visitor facilities. [2] [3]

Collection and display

African sculpture of a woman with child, 14th century, modern day Mali Mali, dogon, signore della 'maternita rossa', xiv sec. 02.JPG
African sculpture of a woman with child, 14th century, modern day Mali

The gallery presents a selection of 130 major works from the Louvre and other French public collections, with 77 works from the ethnological Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, and further including the Musée Guimet, the Musée d’Aquitaine, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as well as loans from international partners such as the government of Nigeria. The selection spans a wide chronological range, from ancient artefacts to historical and ritual objects and is organised to encourage cross-cultural conversation and thematic connections across continents and eras. [4]

The exhibition context emphasises relations between cultures by juxtaposing objects formerly exhibited in separate historical or regional departments, such as European antiquities and African sculpture, to encourage visitors to consider universal themes such as birth, death, belief systems, authority, and human engagement with the natural world. [1] A description in three languages (French, English and Spanish) introduces each thematic section, while a bilingual label accompanies each work. In-depth fact sheets explaining the history, use and provenance of some 20 pieces are also available. [5]

Further, a nine-part painting series titled Liaisons (Connections) by South African–born artist Marlene Dumas is placed at the entry of the gallery. Commissioned by the Louvre's director Laurence des Cars, Dumas became the first contemporary female artist to be included in the permanent collection of the Musée du Louvre. [6]

Museographical approach

European sculpture of The Virgin with Child, around 1300 CE, Aragon, Spain Vierge a l'enfant (Louvre, RF 2015-2).jpg
European sculpture of The Virgin with Child, around 1300 CE, Aragon, Spain

The gallery’s new layout emphasizes dialogue between civilizations and aims to place different cultures in relation to one another, reflecting the growing recognition of their diverse heritage. The layout and interpretive material are organised to support comparative encounters between Western and non-Western artworks, with multilingual explanatory texts and detailed labels to guide the visitor's interpretation. Thus, an African wooden sculpture of a woman with child is exhibited next to a European religious sculpture of The Virgin with Child as an example of maternity, protection and lineage in a shared human experience. [4]

This approach reflects broader shifts in museology toward decentring Eurocentric narratives and giving due importance to the value and sophistication of global artistic expression. The interior spaces, characterised by broad, light-filled rooms designed by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, provide a setting that supports the gallery’s global scope. The renovation included improvements to visitor amenities and accessibility, with a new entrance via the museum's Porte des Lions, which also offers easier access to nearby collections within the museum. [1] [5]

Reception

While the Gallery of the Five Continents and the earlier Pavillon des Sessions have been praised as a significant step in presenting non-Western art within the Louvre’s core narrative, [7] commentary in academic and museological circles has also highlighted ongoing debates regarding the framing of global art in historically Western institutions. [8] Thus, commentators have argued that such presentations should remain critically attentive to issues of provenance, colonial histories, legal ownership, demands for restitution, the labelling of artworks as "masterpieces" and power dynamics embedded in museum collections that claim to be "universal". [9]

Earlier controversies about ownership had arisen about Nok and Sokoto sculptures exhibited in the Pavillion des Sessions. In 1998, they had been bought by France on the commercial art market although being listed on ICOM’s Red List of African Archaeological Cultural Objects at Risk. After lengthy negociations, a bilateral agreement between France and Nigeria resolved the issue of who legally owns the sculptures. France formally acknowledged Nigeria’s ownership, and Nigeria agreed to lend the works to France for an initial 25-year term, with the possibility of extending the arrangement by mutual consent. [10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "From all corners of the World - The Gallery of Five Continents". Le Louvre. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  2. ↑ Cosme, Dimitri (14 April 2025). "Louvre : Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière soutient le nouvel accueil de la Galerie des cinq continents". The Art Newspaper (in French). Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  3. ↑ "Galerie des cinq continents : le Louvre et le quai Branly réinventent le dialogue des cultures". www.lememento.paris (in French). Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  4. 1 2 Dannery, Letizia (7 December 2025). "Louvre : la galerie des Cinq Continents a ouvert ses portes". L'Express (in French). Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Louvre opens Five Continents Gallery, with 130 works from the world brought together". www.finestresullarte.info. 4 December 2025. Retrieved 7 February 2026.
  6. ↑ Ghys, Clément (7 November 2025). "Marlene Dumas becomes first contemporary woman artist in Louvre's permanent collection". Le Monde. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  7. ↑ Azimi, Roxana (1 December 2025). "Musée du Louvre : l'ex-pavillon des Sessions rouvre en plein tumulte" [Louvre’s former Pavillon des Sessions reopens amid controversy]. Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  8. ↑ Poulin, Taylor L. (2010). ""Every Place in the World on the Same Level!": Examining the Display of Non-Western Art at the Musee du Quai Branly". Inquiries Journal. 2 (03).
  9. ↑ Guermandi, Maria Pia (8 January 2026). "Is the Louvre making a change of course? And is the new layout of the Pavillon des Sessions evidence of this?". RM*[restitution matters]. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  10. ↑ Ece Velioglu, Anne Laure Bandle, Alessandro Chechi, Marc-André Renold (December 2012). "Case Three Nok and Sokoto Sculptures – Nigeria and France". plone.unige.ch. Art Law Centre, University of Geneva. Retrieved 5 February 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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