‘The Illustrious Unknowns of the Louvre’: augmented reality gives new life to masterpieces

Visitors will be invited to embark on a one-of-a-kind journey through six masterpieces from the museum’s permanent collection: 

• The Code of Hammurabi, which brings together nearly 282 legal provisions decreed by Hammurabi, King of Babylon in the 18th century BC.
• The bust of the renowned pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten, from the temple of Karnak.
• Portrait of Anne of Cleves, a 16th-century German princess, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger.
• The Kore of Samos, offered to the goddess Hera in her sanctuary on the island of Samos.
• The Four Captives by Martin Desjardins from the pedestal of the statue of King Louis XIV at Place des Victoires in Paris, melted down during the Revolution.
• An oval ‘rusticware’ dish demonstrating the remarkable inventiveness of Bernard Palissy, a master ceramicist working in Paris in the mid-16th century.

Simply by using their smartphones, visitors can bring all these works to life, revealing their secrets and restoring their long-lost shapes and colours. Thanks to augmented reality, they will be able to discover the works as they were at the time of their creation, down to the smallest traces of the artists’ technical skill. 

This free visitor experience was designed by the AR Studio of Snapchat, in close collaboration with curators from the Musée du Louvre, and using both archival records and the latest academic research.