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The Louvre in Paris is renowned as one of the world’s ‘must visit’ museums. Now Hong Kong people can enjoy the richness and diversity of the museum’s collections on their own doorstep as part of this year’s Le French May Festival.

Running between 26 April and 24 July at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the exhibition is one of four programmes in Le French May 2017 being supported by the Club’s Charities Trust, and is also one of the signature activities for the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Entitled “Inventing le Louvre: From Palace to Museum over 800 Years”, the exhibition showcases 126 priceless art works from Musée du Louvre including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, tapestries and more.

Highlight exhibits include a statue of Jean de la Fontaine, an ancient Greek statue fragment Horse Head and the Van Dyck painting Saint Sebastian Bound for Martyrdom, all of which are being shown in Hong Kong for the first time. There are multimedia and 3D displays that allow visitors to feel they are venturing into the French palace themselves, as well as education and outreach programmes to help them gain a better understanding of the vitality and universal nature of Musée du Louvre.

This exhibition perfectly reflects one of the major objectives of the Trust’s latest strategic focus area of Arts, Culture and Heritage, namely to expand the local audience for the arts and make them accessible for all.

Other Le French May programmes being supported by the Trust this year are The Royal Concert of the Night “The Birth of the Sun King” performed by the globally-acclaimed Ensemble Correspondances, which is the Festival opening concert and also the world premiere of the work; Nicolas Buffe: The Dream of Polifilo, the debut exhibition of this innovative French artist; and Paris Ballet Legends: A Night with the Stars, an iconic ballet performed by stars from the Paris Opera Ballet together with dancers from Hong Kong Ballet.

For more information, please visit: http://www.frenchmay.com.