From Mona Lisa To Crown Of Louis XV: 15 Things To See At Louvre Museum In Paris

The Louvre doesn’t just sit there in Paris, it breathes. It sings with centuries of obsession, of hands carving marble and minds sketching angels on scraps of paper under candlelight. Walk through its endless halls and you start to lose a sense of time. A Roman goddess stares through glass at a crowd of people holding up phones; a Renaissance smile hides something no historian can quite catch. Somewhere between the echoing footsteps and the quiet gasp before the Mona Lisa, the museum shifts from a building into a pulse. Here is a curated list of 15 iconic things to see at the Louvre Museum.

15 Iconic Things To See At The Louvre Museum In Paris

1. Mona Lisa  

Out of all the things to see at the Louvre Museum in Paris, she doesn’t just smile, she waits. Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Lisa Gherardini, painted in the early 1500s, hangs in the Salle des États like a secret everyone wants to solve. The air hums with cameras, whispers, and that strange sensation that she’s looking only at you.

2. Crown Of Louis XV

In 1722, France gave its king a diadem worthy of divine right. This crown, the only survivor of the ancient régime’s regalia, gleams with extravagant calm, its diamonds framing the legendary Regent diamond. Every facet remembers a vanished world of silk, ceremony, and unshakable hierarchy.

3. Venus De Milo  

She has no arms, but she doesn’t need them. Found on the island of Milos, this marble goddess carries the hush of centuries in her poise. She leans slightly, as if still moving toward something lost, forever embodying that delicate line between ruin and perfection.

4. Winged Victory Of Samothrace

You turn a corner and there she is: wind-struck, triumphant, a goddess frozen mid-descent. This Hellenistic statue of Nike, her drapery whipped into stormy motion, once crowned a ship’s prow. Now it crowns a staircase, and somehow, you still feel the sea.

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5. The Raft Of The Medusa  

Théodore Géricault’s canvas doesn’t just hang, it looms in all its glory. A shipwreck, a scandal, a mass of desperate bodies clinging to life: that’s all this masterpiece is about. Raw Romanticism spills out in waves of flesh and fury. It’s less a painting than a cry for justice whispered through the centuries.

6. The Wedding Feast At Cana  

Across from the Mona Lisa, Veronese throws a party fit for the Son of God. Christ performs his first miracle among musicians, nobles, servants, and stray dogs, all captured in electric colour and impossible scale. Over six metres high and nearly ten wide, it’s both divine and riotous.

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7. Liberty Leading The People

Eugène Delacroix paints revolution like a fever dream. Liberty, bare-breasted, with a flag aloft, strides through smoke and madness and is leading a ragged army of real people. The July Revolution of 1830 became an eternal scene of defiance in this iconic piece. Dust, fire, and freedom – it’s all there in the brushwork.

8. The Lacemaker  

Vermeer slows time. A young woman bends over her needlework, channels of light wrapping her like a prayer. Every thread breathes in the masterpiece. It’s small, quiet, and domestic, and yet, it feels vast, as if the world’s calm is gathered into her fingertip.

9. The Winged Bull Of Khorsabad  

Massive and solemn, this Assyrian guardian from the palace of King Sargon II stares down eternity. A human-headed bull with wings, half-beast and half-god, is shown. Its carved muscles and watchful eyes remind us that ancient power liked to look you straight in the soul.

10. The Code Of Hammurabi 

Carved in dark basalt four thousand years ago, this stele doesn’t whisper laws, it declares them. Hammurabi stands before the sun god Shamash, accepting authority. Below, a dense script of justice for a civilisation still echoes in the code.

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11. The Great Sphinx Of Tanis  

Half lion, half pharaoh, this limestone sphinx from Egypt’s 26th dynasty rests in silence and is as patient as time. The face, worn but knowing, holds that ageless balance of menace and wisdom and is like a riddle the centuries never solved.

12. The Winged Bull Of Nimrud  

A twin ancestor to the one from Khorsabad, this colossal sculpture once guarded King Ashurnasirpal II’s palace. Feathers, curls, and inscriptions cover its surface, each detail serving as a code of divine protection and might. Even now, it feels ready to move.

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13. The Napoleon III Apartments 

Soft light falls on velvet upholstery and gold-gilded mirrors in this masterpiece. Every chandelier and draped curtain whispers of 19th-century decadence. These restored rooms conjure the opulence of Emperor Napoleon III, a place where diplomacy mingled with indulgence.

14. The Seated Scribe

Unlike the serene gods and elegant nobles, the Seated Scribe is like immediacy carved in stone. His attentive gaze and slightly forward posture suggest a man caught in thought, ready to record the world around him. Carved over 4,500 years ago in painted limestone, this sculpture is a rare glimpse into the intellect and daily life of ancient Egypt.

15. Saint John The Baptist By Leonardo Da Vinci

This enigmatic painting captures John the Baptist in a twisting pose, finger raised in a mysterious gesture. Da Vinci’s mastery of chiaroscuro makes the figure almost emerge from the dark background, creating a sense of movement and spiritual intensity. It’s a quiet masterpiece that reveals the artist’s fascination with human expression and divine presence.

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Forget “art appreciation.” You don’t visit the Louvre Museum to check boxes off a list or simply see the most talked-about things, you stumble into a dialogue with iconicity. The chipped edge of a sarcophagus, the impossible colour of a 17th-century drapery, and a scrap of jewellery that outlived its queen all whisper in their own strange dialects. One minute you’re captivated by the shimmer on an Egyptian amulet; the next, you’re furious that you’ll never meet the hands that made it. And that’s the Louvre for you.

Cover Image Courtesy: louvremuseum/website