Louvre unveils treasures to adorn halls of Atlanta's High Museum of Art

New York — A portrait by Ren­aissance genius Raphael that has remained in its Paris palace since the 17th century will soon make its way to Atlanta, thanks to the High Museum of Art's French connection — its partnership with the venerated Louvre Museum.

It was one of the major works revealed Wednesday night, when High officials released the list of pieces coming to Atlanta over the first year of a three-year partnership, starting in mid-October. The roster is a who's who of Old Masters, including Rembrandt, Rubens and Durer. Most of the 143 drawings, paintings, sculptures and decorative arts works have never been shown in the United States, and most of the paintings have never left the hallowed gallery walls.

"At this level, you don't put these paintings in storage," Olivier Meslay, the Louvre's managing curator for the project, said Wednesday at a news conference in Manhattan.

While the Mona Lisa isn't budging an inch, the Louvre is sharing some historically important paintings. In addition to Raphael's renowned "Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione," the Louvre is sending "Et in Arcadia Ego," a painting considered the epitome of the grand manner of French classicism, by 17th-century master Nicolas Poussin. The Louvre counts it as one of the most important works in its 35,000-object collection.

The theme of the three-year series is the history and development of the Louvre from the 17th century, when it was still a royal palace, to the present. The three exhibits to be shown during the first year focus on the collections amassed by Kings Louis XIV (a great art patron who left a legacy of building France's cultural currency) and Louis XVI:

• The 15 paintings and 17 sculptures in "Kings as Collectors," running Oct. 14-Sept. 2, 2007, show their wide-ranging taste. It offers a sampling of art produced across the continent during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries that ranges from Rembrandt's soul-searching to the sensuous frivolity of Rococo artists such as Frenchman Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

• The 60 works in "The King's Drawings," which runs from Oct. 14 to Jan. 21, 2007, is, according to the High, one of the largest groups of Old Masters drawings ever shown in the Southeast.

• The tapestries, fine china, silver and ornate furniture in "Decorative Arts of the Kings," March 3, 2007-Sept. 2, 2007, attest that the royals spared no expense regarding palace accoutrements, either. None of the 53 objets d'art has ever been in this country.

The second year of "Louvre Atlanta," October 2007-September 2008, will explore interest in ancient art and archaeology during the Enlightenment or the reign of Napoleon. The main show will be drawn from the Louvre's collection of Egyptian, Greco-Roman and near-Eastern antiquities. Also on tap: a small exhibit of works by sculptor Jeane-Antoine Houdon, whose clients included French intellectuals and American statesmen, and Empress Josephine's personal collection of antiquities, reassembled since her husband's fall from power.

The final year of exhibits, October 2008-September 2009, still in the planning stages, brings the collections up to the present.

Even those who've visited the Paris museum should find plenty they've never seen before. The Louvre, which encompasses art from antiquity to the mid-19th century, is, after all, a vast institution. Faced with a daunting six miles of gallery walls and limited time, most tourists opt for the greatest hits — the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo — and whatever happens to be displayed along the way. This series of exhibitions will enable viewers to slow down and see things they'd likely otherwise miss — for instance, the light-sensitive drawings, which appear only briefly in the galleries, if ever.

"Louvre Atlanta" is the most ambitious of the High's ongoing efforts to import great art through collaborations with European museums. The project grew out of a relationship High Museum director Michael Shapiro forged with Henri Loyrette, then director of the Musée d'Orsay, through the High's Impressionism exhibits of the late '90s and early 2000s. At that time, Shapiro was the one with hat in hand. When they met again at the Louvre in 2002, it was the French museum director, now across the Seine at the Louvre, who had a proposal.

The leaders of the two institutions hope the collaboration will be a proverbial win-win situation. Facing the prospect of less governmental funding support, the Louvre needs to find new revenue streams and build development expertise. The French museum will receive a fee for the loans. The High, which has not disclosed the amount, has raised $13 million to cover that fee and the expenses of organizing the three-year exchange and is still raising money.