Gallery of the Five Continents: opening of a new exhibition space at the Louvre Museum

The Louvre Museum is full of wonders, which are constantly evolving and sometimes changing places. Built during the Second Empire by Hector Lefuel, the Pavillon des Sessions will become the Galerie des Cinq Continents on December 3, 2025, offering a dialogue between the cultures of the world across borders and eras, through a selection of objects from the collections of the Louvre, the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, and the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, among others, inits vast and luminous rooms.

From Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, this space brings together, on an equal footing, several millennia of human creation and reveals echoes between works, cultures, and continents, as well as the diversity of representations, functions, and values. A ticket to the Louvre Museum allows access to the gallery at no extra charge.

Musée du Louvre: discover the artistic and tourist heart of the capital
The Musée du Louvre, one of the capital's must-see museums, promotes French and European culture through its many masterpieces on display, as evidenced by the 8 million visitors a year who come to contemplate the smile of the Mona Lisa or the fervor of Liberty Guiding the People. A place steeped in history, where art has been flourishing for two centuries already, to discover if you're staying in Paris! [Read more]

• To be read
• This week's top picks in Paris and Île-de-France, May 11–17, 2026
• Free museums in Paris and free monuments in Île-de-France: the top cultural deals

Upcoming programming 

• Round tables: Encounters of the Five Continents- December 10, 2025 - January 29, 2026

A masterpiece from the Louvre Museum's collections, on display in the Michel Laclotte Auditorium, will be examined in detail for an hour, using advanced audiovisual technology. These exceptional lectures, unique in the world, are a veritable school of observation: they guide the viewer step by step through the discovery of a work, its era, and its world. At the same time, they offer a wide-open window onto the life of the museum, its professions, and its collections.

• Performances - Dance/creation: Nacera Belaza: Les Ombres (The Shadows) - December 8–18, 2025

For the fourth creation in the Louvre Museum and Festival d'Automne's contemporary performance collection, Nacera Belaza presents Les Ombres. She will take over the Galerie des Cinq Continents for its reopening, in a redesigned presentation of the collections, in dialogue with works from the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.

• Draw me a masterpiece: Face to face! Monumental head (Moai) from Rapa Nui - Easter Island - December 20

Unravel the mysteries of the enigmatic statues of Rapa Nui, Easter Island... After the success of the first season, Laetitia, Nicolas, and Axl-s return to the stage of the Michel Laclotte Auditorium. This series of shows, which are funny, educational, and poetic, designed for families and accessible to ages 7 to 107, invites you to dive headfirst into a masterpiece from the Louvre.

• Conference: Cross Perspectives on the Gallery of the Five Continents and the Rockefeller Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - January 29, 2026

Souleymane Bachir Diagne, holder of the Louvre Chair in 2024, dedicated to the museum's "universals," will discuss the opening of the Gallery of Five Continents in conversation with Alisa LaGamma, who oversaw the renovation of the Rockefeller Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which houses collections of art from Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas.
Together, they will discuss the challenges of presenting non-Western collections in museums in the light of new narratives.