(In pictures) At the Louvre, this laboratory takes care of the works of art of the museums of France

Did you say C2RMF? The acronym of this essential establishment in the French heritage landscape certainly seems a little barbaric… And yet, at the bend of its workshops, the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France reveals itself to be a magical cave, in the heart of Paris, where rub shoulders with Gothic statues, paintings by Antoine Watteau, Egyptian mummies and gilded furniture from the 19th century…

Created in 1999, the place is well known to the curators of the 1,200 institutions that bear the “Musée de France” label. And for good reason: they send their most fabulous treasures there. Here, the works of art are studied with the most modern methods of science to better understand the materials that compose them and identify their history. Are there, under this 15th century altarpiece, invisible pictorial layers revealing another intention of the painter? How was this desk of Louis XIV originally assembled, which subsequently underwent radical transformations? The investigations of archaeologists, art historians, chemists, geologists, photographers… will be used to diagnose the condition of these objects and to feed precise studies.

Some will then be restored on site. Because in the workshops of the Pavillon de Flore, at the very end of the Louvre Palace, “in-house” professionals work on certain rare specialties such as archaeological metal or artistic cabinetmaking. The research laboratories are concentrated under the neighboring garden of the Carrousel: there, thick concrete walls house the flagship tool of the C2RMF, “New AGLAé”, the only particle accelerator in the world whose mission consists exclusively in analyze the materials of works by ion beams: science placed at the service of art.