Crisis-hit Louvre gets new director

Your digest of the top events, art news and gossip       Get more great writing every day – from just £1 a week     Korean National Treasures: 2,000 Years of Art Art Institute of Chicago | 7 Mar–5 Jul Some of the country's most important artworks continue their US tour       Catherine Opie: To Be Seen National Portrait Gallery, London | 5 Mar–31 May High schoolers, sports players and the photographer herself are the focus of this retrospective       Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture Sir John Soane's Museum, London | 4 Mar–28 Jun See drawings by the artistic all-rounder with a flair for the baroque       The First Homosexuals: The Birth of New Identities, 1869–1939 Kunstmuseum Basel | 7 Mar–2 Aug At a time when it was safer to be in than out, artists had to get really creative         Christophe Leribault has been appointed director of the Louvre after Laurence des Cars's resignation | also in France, Rachida Dati has resigned as minister for culture to focus on the Paris mayoral race – and Catherine Pégard has taken her place | the High Museum of Art's chief operating officer has resigned after being accused of embezzling $600,000 | Cambodia has received 74 Khmer artefacts from the collection of the disgraced antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford | the US collector and philanthropist Iris Cantor has died at the age of 95         The Tate time-travels to the 1990s         SPONSORED CONTENT FROM     Born on 25 February 1841, 185 years ago this week, Pierre-Auguste Renoir captured the boulevards, riverside restaurants and garden promenades of Paris in luminous, immediately recognisable paintings. The city's transformation under Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 1860s created the wide avenues and café culture that became synonymous with modern urban life in France, attracting artists from across Europe and the United States who sought to capture the pace and textures of life in the capital. From Impressionist painters documenting the play of light on the Seine to contemporary photographers chronicling Paris's diverse banlieues, artists have found the city to accommodate both romantic idealisation and clear-eyed social observation. This week we examine four works that depict Paris in its various guises, revealing how the city has continued to inspire artists. This is part of our 'Four things to see' series, which offers you a new way in to some of the world's greatest collections, sponsored by Bloomberg Connects: the free arts and culture app.     More from Apollo Current issue | Advertise | Podcasts   View this email in your browser   Follow us Apollo Magazine, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP. All Articles and Content Copyright © 2026 by Apollo Magazine. All Rights Reserved. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time. To ensure our emails are delivered to your inbox, please add Apollo to your email address book and safe-sender list.