THE DISPLAY WILL BE REGULARLY RENEWED

205 artworks or sets of artworks will be exhibited in the Galerie du Temps for 5 years. This is a semi-permanent exhibition, in which most of these artworks will remain in Lens for the whole 5 years. A little under 20% will be changed after a year, on the anniversary of the museum's opening on 4 December, and then regularly every year. This rotation will help foster a loyal following among visitors who will return each year to find a new tour.

A TRANSVERSE PRESENTATION: A NEW LOOK AT THE COLLECTIONS OF THE LOUVRE

The choice of a single exhibition space enables artworks produced by different civilisations and different cultures but conceived at the same point of history to be juxtaposed. This frees us from the constraints of the Louvre museum in Paris where the collections are presented by department, allowing no dialogue between works of art from the same period but with different techniques or from different civilisations. In contrast, at Lens visitors will be able to see, for example for the 5th century BC, the masterpieces of classical Greece side by side with those of the Persian empire or those of Pharoanic Egypt.  This brings the possibility of a whole new way of understanding the history of art and of humanity.

MASTERPIECES FROM ALL THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE LOUVRE

All the departments have loaned artworks for this Galerie du Temps: 25 artworks from the Department of Oriental Antiquities; 21 artworks from the Department of Egyptian Antiquities; 31 artworks from the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; 37 artworks from the Department of Islamic Art; 31 artworks from the Department of Paintings; and 30 artworks from the Department of Sculptures. Prints and drawings, which require special conditions for display, are the only ones not exhibited in this part of the museum. They will however feature in the context of temporary exhibitions.