Louvre to lend Islamic art treasures to the Smithsonian

The Louvre, home to one of the world's richest collections of Islamic art, is preparing to send a significant selection of its holdings across the Atlantic. The National Museum of Asian Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, will soon open an exhibition built around 26 works on loan from the Paris museum.

According to The Art Newspaper, some of the pieces have never before been exhibited in the United States. The loan draws on the Louvre's Islamic art department, which reopened in a striking glass-roofed wing in 2012 and spans more than thirteen centuries of artistic production, from Morocco to Indonesia.

The partnership reflects a long-standing tradition of cooperation between major museums, allowing works rarely seen outside their home institutions to travel abroad. The National Museum of Asian Art, formerly known as the Freer|Sackler Galleries, is among the few American institutions with deep curatorial expertise in Asian and Islamic art, making it a natural partner for this kind of exchange.

The Washington exhibition is expected to introduce American audiences to major pieces of Islamic heritage normally housed in Paris, at a time when Western museums are working to raise the profile of collections that have historically received less attention than European fine art. Exact opening dates have not yet been announced, but the loan agreement marks a notable step in cultural exchange between the two institutions.

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Written by the ADM desk based on The Art Newspaper. Read the original article for the full story.