Launched in 2010 to purchase The Three Graces by Lucas Cranach for the Louvre collections, Become a Patron! campaigns have become an important annual event. Each year, several thousand people contribute to the conservation or acquisition of major works of art such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace in 2013, the mastaba of Akhethotep in 2017, King François I’s Book of Hours in 2018, the Apollo Kitharoidos in 2020, the Tuileries Garden’s Grande Allée in 2021, the Miseroni Cameo in 2022 or the Choiseul Snuffbox in 2023.Your involvement alongside the Louvre is essential!.

Fundraising campagn for Basket of strawberries

In 2024, Jean Siméon Chardin’s Basket of Strawberries has now returned the Louvre collections thanks to the historic involvement of 10,000 donors.

We extend our warmest thanks to all the donors who helped raise the €1,600,000 necessary for acquisition of this masterpiece.

The Musée du Louvre also extends its thanks to LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton for its exceptional sponsorship as well as the Société des Amis du Louvre, the Laplace architecture firm and the Laboratoires Septodont for their support.

Fundraising campagn for the Choiseul Snuffbox

In 2023, the Choiseul Snuffbox joined the Musée du Louvre’s collection, thanks to the involvement of more than 5,000 donors.

We extend our warmest thanks to all the donors who helped raise the €1,200,000 necessary for the acquisition of the Choiseul Snuffbox. Thanks to this remarkable involvement, this miniature masterpiece can now be enjoyed by more people than ever before in all of its wonderful detail.

This acquisition was made possible in part thanks to the generous support of Monsieur Michel Lacoste, assisted by Monsieur Stéphane Turysk and in tribute to Madame Michèle Bimbenet-Privat.

The Musée du Louvre also extends its thanks to the Société des Amis du Louvre, the International Council of the Louvre and the American Friends of the Louvre, the Laboratoires Septodont and Monsieur Henri Schiller, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Fundraising campaign for the Miseroni Cameo

In 2022, the cameo of Venus and Cupid joined the Musée du Louvre’s collection thanks to the involvement of more than 5,600 donors. 

We extend our warmest thanks to all the donors who helped reunite this remarkably preserved masterpiece with its hardstone cup counterpart from the French royal collections. This acquisition presented the unique opportunity to reunite the two parts of one of the crown jewels belonging to Cardinal Mazarin and later Louis XIV.

The Musée du Louvre also extends its thanks to the Société des Amis du Louvre, the Maison Cartier as well as the Laboratoires Septodont and Monsieur Henri Schiller, Chairman of the Supervisory Board. 

Fundraising campaign for the Grande Allée of the Tuileries garden

In 2021, thanks to the involvement and generosity of more than 4,500 donors, the Musée du Louvre raised €1 million to restore the Tuileries Garden’s Grande Allée.

We extend our deepest thanks for your remarkable involvement, which has once again demonstrated the public's willingness to participate in projects to restore and preserve our national heritage.

The Musée du Louvre also extends its warmest thanks to the Société des Amis du Louvre, Parfums Christian Dior and Moët Hennessy.

Fundraising campaign for the Apollo Kitharoidos

In 2020, more than 6,600 donors helped bring the Apollo Kitharoidos into the national collections.

This large bronze statuette dating to the 2nd or 1st century BC is a superb depiction of Apollo, the Greek god of the arts, male beauty and light. It was likely used to decorate a Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The Apollo survived and lay buried beneath the volcanic ashes, which saved it from a second form of destruction as most ancient bronzes were melted down from antiquity to the Middle Ages for their metal. Its addition to the Louvre collections offers us all the opportunity to view this extremely rare and remarkably preserved ancient masterpiece for the very first time.

Fundraising campaign for the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

In 2019, thanks to the generosity of more than 4,500 donors, a major conservation project was secured for the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

Over two centuries ago, the greatest architects, sculptors and craftsmen of the French Empire joined forces to create this monumental triumphal arch for the Tuileries palace complex. Their efforts resulted in a sumptuous but fragile masterpiece that is now in need of conservation treatment. The project includes cleaning the facings and decorations, reinforcing the ironwork, and restoring sculptures or replacing them in case of damage caused by exposure over time. 

Fundraising campaign for François I’s Book of Hours

In 2018, more than 8,500 donors helped bring a French royal treasure back home: King François I’s Book of Hours. 

Purchased by the royal patron in 1538, King François I’s Book of Hours is a dazzling masterpiece of the French Renaissance. Today listed in France as a ‘work of significant historical interest,’ it is a piece unparalleled in the French public collections, or indeed any public collections around the world. It is a unique vestige of the House of Valois’ treasures, which have been widely scattered over the centuries. 

Fundraising campaign for The mastaba of Akhethotep

Thanks to the generosity of more than 3,700 donors, the Musée du Louvre raised €670,000 to help restore the chapel of the Mastaba of Akhethotep. We extend our warmest thanks to all the donors for their incredible help in bringing this ancient Egyptian treasure back to life at the Louvre.

The Louvre is proud to present the newly renovated chapel at the heart of its collection, bringing the world one of the most stunning monuments from ancient Egypt.

Fundraising campaign for Jacques Saly’s Cupid

Jacques Saly’s Cupid Testing One of His Arrows is considered a marvel of French sculpture, and the artist’s uncontested masterpiece. Thanks to the generosity of more than 4,300 donors, this work joined the national collections in 2016.

The rediscovery of this stunning work, kept in private hands for more than two centuries and listed as a French National Treasure, presented the unique opportunity to show the world the piece that completed the unparalleled sculpture collection of the Marquise de Pompadour.
This acquisition brought a major work of French art into the national collections, paying homage to an artist celebrated in his own day as on par with the titans of his craft.

Fundraising campaign for the Teschen Table

Belonging to the Breteuil family since its creation in 1779, the Teschen Table, also known as the Breteuil Table, is a masterpiece of 18th-century decorative arts. Designated a ‘French National Treasure’ then a ‘work of significant historical interest,’ it is also a monument commemorating a key moment in European history. Thanks to the generosity of more than 4,500 donors, this stunning table found a fitting home in the new galleries dedicated to 18th-century Decorative Arts at the Louvre.

Its acquisition presented the unique opportunity to keep in France a masterpiece whose symbolic, historical and artistic dimensions perfectly embody the Louvre’s vocation as a national museum.

Fundraising campaign for the Winged Victory of Samothrace

In 2013, the Musée du Louvre made a call for donations to carry out conservation treatment on one of the world’s most unique masterpieces: the Winged Victory of Samothrace. More than 6,700 people participated, restoring this spectacular monument of Greek sculpture to all its former splendour. The Musée du Louvre extends its warmest thanks to all those who made a donation.

Discovered in Samothrace in 1863, this Hellenistic sculpture of the goddess who heralds victory is one of the most iconic artworks of the Louvre collection. The conservation project aimed to fix the monument’s structural issues and restore the original hues to the marble of the statue and that of its boat-shaped base.

Fundraising campaign for the Medieval ivories

In October 2012, the Musée du Louvre appealed to the generosity of donors to acquire two medieval statuettes listed as French National Treasures. Six months later, Saint Jean and The Synagogue joined the museum’s collections thanks to 4,500 donors. The Musée du Louvre extends its warmest thanks to all those who made a donation!

These two figures, once thought lost or destroyed, were the only missing pieces of a Gothic masterpiece. The seven ivory statuettes that make up the Descent from the Cross are remarkable for their exquisite craftsmanship, exceptional state of preservation and dramatic strength. The complete work is on display in room 503 (Richelieu wing, Level 1) of the Department of Decorative Arts.

Fundraising campaign for the Treasures of Cairo

The Louvre extends its warmest thanks to the generous donors who made it possible to carry out the conservation treatment on the two treasures of Cairo.

These two architectural pieces, spectacular in size and fine detail, long lay dormant in the Louvre’s reserves. One is a monumental, four-metre-high Mameluke porch from the 15th century; the other, an 18th-century mashrabiyya surmounted with stained glass, a stunning example of Ottoman civil architecture. Some 2,000 donors helped fund the conservation treatment of these treasures, allowing them to be installed in time for the inauguration of the Department of Islamic Arts in October 2012.

Fundraising campaign for the The Three Graces

In late 2010, the Louvre launched an unprecedented fundraising campaign to acquire a Renaissance masterpiece: The Three Graces by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Indeed, such a rare painting of exquisite craftsmanship and in such a perfect state of conservation demanded an ambitious effort from the museum. Thanks to the support of 7,200 donors, the work is now on display for all to see at the Louvre. The Musée du Louvre extends its warmest thanks to all those who made a donation.

An extraordinary work by the German Renaissance master, the painting was in private hands and had never been exhibited in public before the Louvre acquired it. The piece can now be admired in room 810 (Richelieu wing, 2nd floor) of the Department of Paintings.