With masterpieces such as Mona Lisa and Nike from Samothrake, the Louvre in Paris is possibly the world's most famous art museum and is visited by millions of art lovers each year. In 2018, the museum was visited by a new record of 10.2 million people.
The Louvre's management believes that its success can be explained by their successful exhibition of French artist Eugène Delacroix, however that’s not the whole truth. The increasing public interest depends not only on the museum's collection, but also on what contemporary greats it attracts to Paris' first arrondissement.
One of the big takes from last year was when the husband and wife duo Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed together under the name The Carters and released their album Everything is Love. The album's first single Apeshit was supplemented with a now iconic music video recorded at none other than the Louvre.
Today, the video has been viewed over 146 million times and is a strong contributing factor to the Louvre's success. Several of the museum's (and art history's) most famous and appreciated works occur in the video but in a completely new context.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z are undoubtedly two of the world's most successful artists, but the couple's entry into the Louvre has a much greater value than just the Carter's personal success. The presence of R&B and hip hop at the Louvre blurred the boundary between popular and fine culture in a way that affected many.
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Although the Louvre's management may not want to admit the huge impact of the music video on the museum's visitor numbers, they haven’t been alien to take advantage of the Carter spouses. In July, a ninety-minute guided tour was introduced called Jay-Z and Beyoncé at the Louvre, which included 17 of the works of art that appear in Apeshit.
10.2 million visits isn’t bad – the Louvre's last visitor record was set in 2012 and consisted of 9.7 million museum guests.
