Louvre opens new branch in grim northern mining town
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A workman walks on the the roof of the Le Louvre Lens Museum, by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, on the eve of the inauguration of the museum in Lens, northern France, on Dec 3, 2012. -- PHOTO: KAZUYO SEJIMA/RYUE NISHIZAWA/SANAA/REUTERS
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Picture of the Louvre Lens Museum taken on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Posters are pictured outside the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 4, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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France's President Francois Hollande (2nd right) and Culture minister Aurelie Filippetti (2nd left) pose in front of the painting La Liberte Guidant le Peuple, 1830 (Liberty Leading the People) by Eugene Delacroix during the inauguration of Le Louvre Lens Museum, in Lens, northern France, on Dec 4, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima (left) and Ryue Nishizawa pose in the entrance hall of the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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People visit the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A visitor takes in pictures La Sainte Anne by Leonard de Vinci at the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A person walks by an alterpiece of the Saint-Martin church The Virgin and Child between the Twelve Apostles created between 1400 and 1425 on Dec 3, 2012 at the Louvre Lens Museum in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A visitor takes in pictures La Sainte Anne by Leonard de Vinci at the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. AFP
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People stand in front of a sculpture representing Jupiter at the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A woman walks near Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno painted by Pierre-Paul Rubens, circa1615, during media day on the eve of the inauguration of the Le Louvre Lens Museum, in Lens, northern France, on Dec 3, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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A silhouetted man is reflected in the glass of L'Ete, a painting by Arcimboldo Giuseppe in the Louvre Museum in Lens, northern France, on Monday, Dec 3, 2012. The museum in Lens, is part of a strategy to spread art beyond the traditional bastions of culture in Paris. -- PHOTO: AP
A workman walks on the the roof of the Le Louvre Lens Museum, by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, on the eve of the inauguration of the museum in Lens, northern France, on Dec 3, 2012. -- PHOTO: KAZUYO SEJIMA/RYUE NISHIZAWA/SANAA/REUTERS
Picture of the Louvre Lens Museum taken on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
Posters are pictured outside the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 4, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
France's President Francois Hollande (2nd right) and Culture minister Aurelie Filippetti (2nd left) pose in front of the painting La Liberte Guidant le Peuple, 1830 (Liberty Leading the People) by Eugene Delacroix during the inauguration of Le Louvre Lens Museum, in Lens, northern France, on Dec 4, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima (left) and Ryue Nishizawa pose in the entrance hall of the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
People visit the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
A visitor takes in pictures La Sainte Anne by Leonard de Vinci at the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
A person walks by an alterpiece of the Saint-Martin church The Virgin and Child between the Twelve Apostles created between 1400 and 1425 on Dec 3, 2012 at the Louvre Lens Museum in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
A visitor takes in pictures La Sainte Anne by Leonard de Vinci at the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. AFP
People stand in front of a sculpture representing Jupiter at the Louvre Lens Museum on Dec 3, 2012 in the French northern city of Lens. -- PHOTO: AFP
A woman walks near Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno painted by Pierre-Paul Rubens, circa1615, during media day on the eve of the inauguration of the Le Louvre Lens Museum, in Lens, northern France, on Dec 3, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A silhouetted man is reflected in the glass of L'Ete, a painting by Arcimboldo Giuseppe in the Louvre Museum in Lens, northern France, on Monday, Dec 3, 2012. The museum in Lens, is part of a strategy to spread art beyond the traditional bastions of culture in Paris. -- PHOTO: AP
LENS (AFP) - The Louvre museum opened a new satellite branch among the slag heaps of a former mining town on Tuesday in a bid to bring high culture and visitors to one of France's poorest areas.
Greeted by a group of former miners in overalls and hardhats, President Francois Hollande inaugurated the Japanese-designed glass and polished-aluminium branch of the Louvre in the northern city of Lens.
Officials hope the museum, set to host masterpieces by Delacroix and Raphael for its first year, will help revive a region blighted by the closure of its last coal mines 20 years ago and with unemployment at a stubbornly high 16 percent.
"We know that a museum does not bring spring. But it is a sign at least of the end of winter," regional council chief Daniel Percheron said.
