Not a trip report from me, but rather from The Guardian newspaper in the UK. The video and written reports on the new Louvre concern the trend for great art museums to spin off parts of their collection to satellite branches in unlikely locations (Guggenheim Bilbao, Pompidou Metz, the forthcoming Louvre Abu Dhabi.) Lens certainly sounds unlikely, looking at the mountains of mining rubble that dominate its horizon. The region provided financial support in hopes of a touristic resuscitation.
What’s genuinely astonishing is the minimalist design of the new Louvre offspring, in vivid contrast to its Paris parent. Not a single painting hangs on its walls. Everything is walk-around.
The city is a 1hr15 train ride from Gare du Nord and high on my list for my next Paris visit.
An exhibition described as “temporary” is installed through March. Closed Tuesdays.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...naa-art-museum

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...-gallery-video

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre-Lens

http://www.louvrelens.fr/en/musee

The Guggenheim in NY and Bilbao have never been noted for their permanent collections. There are museums who have hidden wealth that would benefit from branches and others that would not.

In any case, the number of people going to the Louvre Lens has far surpassed expectations.

As for the Pompidou Metz, after its extraordinary first year, numbers went down, and it has been decided that it needs a "semi-permanent" collection that stays in place for 9 months to a year instead of each of the 3 galleries changing throughout the year. Apparently people feel comforted by being able to return to a museum and seeing some things still in the same place. And I agree.

The statistics for 2013 have confirmed that the Louvre Lens is the most visited museum in France outside of the Paris metropolitan area.

I wish the Hermitage would liberate some of the thousands and thousands of works in the basement and those on display somewhere