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The Louvre · Museum Lens

One building holding a cross-civilization graph: Hammurabi’s law stone, a pharaoh’s sphinx, a Greek goddess, Leonardo’s smile, Napoleon’s coronation — none of them isolated exhibits; each connects to an entire universe. Every artifact here carries three layered cards: how it was born, how it walked into this building, and what to look at when you stand before it.

6 flagship artifacts · Locations are given by wing and floor; follow the museum’s own signage for exact rooms.

Richelieu Wing

Mesopotamia — the Code of Hammurabi lives here; fewest crowds, hardest treasure

⚖️The Code of Hammurabic. 1754 BC · Babylon → Susa → ParisThe most complete early law code we have, carved on a black basalt stele over two meters tall — which was itself once carried off as war booty.

Sully Wing

Ancient Egypt and Greece — from the sphinx to the Venus

🐈‍⬛The Great Sphinx of Tanisc. 26th–19th century BC (dating debated; reinscribed by later kings) · Found at Tanis, EgyptGatekeeper of the Louvre’s Egypt: one block of rose granite bearing the names of several pharaohs — later kings ground off their predecessors’ cartouches and carved their own.🗿Venus de Miloc. 150–125 BC · Island of Melos, AegeanA goddess a farmer dug out of his field in 1820 — the missing arms were never found, and the not-finding is what made her an icon.

Denon Wing

Italian paintings and French large formats — the crowded wing

🖼️Mona Lisac. 1503–1517 · Florence → FranceThe most famous painting on earth, from hands that were also dissecting corpses and designing weapons — and what made it a legend was a theft.👑The Coronation of Napoleon1806–1807 · ParisNearly ten meters wide — and it does not show the pope crowning Napoleon: he has already crowned himself, and turns to crown his wife.🚩Liberty Leading the People1830 · ParisNearly everyone assumes it depicts the Revolution of 1789 — it is the July Revolution of 1830, bought by the state a year later and then hidden for decades.