The Louvre Museum at the National Archaeological Museum
From November 18, 2025
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A meeting of two important collections of Iberian sculpture, those of the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) and the Louvre Museum. For the first time in its history, the MAN is hosting ten masterpieces from the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the Louvre Museum in its permanent exhibition galleries.
Originating from the same Iberian archaeological sites, these sculptures remind us of the ties that have existed between the two institutions since the late 19th century. Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to curators José Ramón Mélida (National Archaeological Museum) and Léon Heuzey (Louvre), the importance and uniqueness of Spanish Iberian art were recognized and demonstrated. Such was the interest that the French archaeologists Arthur Engel and Pierre Paris focused their research on Iberian culture. In 1891, Engel had discovered the Llano de la Consolación head during his excavations, and in 1895 he had purchased the Agost sphinxes, enriching the Louvre Museum's collection.
The sphinxes of Agost and El Salobral, as well as the seated lady of Llano de la Consolación and the ashlars of Osuna, were exhibited together in the Louvre Museum from their arrival in Paris until 1937, the year in which the procedures for the exchange of works of art between both countries began, which materialized in 1941 with the arrival in Madrid of a set of Iberian sculptures, after the agreement signed on December 21, 1940.
The thirty-five crates were transferred directly to the Prado Museum where an exhibition was held with the returned pieces, inaugurated on June 27, 1941. At the end of the exhibition, all of them entered the National Archaeological Museum, except for the Lady of Elche, which remained in the Prado Museum until in 1971 it finally passed to the MAN collection.
The absence, at the end of the 19th century, of legislation protecting heritage in our country made it possible for the sculptures purchased and those discovered in the excavations of Engel and Paris to be sold and entered into the Louvre.
This is the first time these sculptures, both those housed in the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) and those in the Louvre, have been brought together in one space. A unique opportunity to contemplate them and appreciate the details of their craftsmanship, scale, volume, and the arrangement of the figures—a historic dialogue between these magnificent works from both museum institutions.
Location:
Practical information:
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM C/ Serrano, 13 28001 Madrid
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday - 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. // Sundays and Public Holidays - 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. // Closed Mondays
In rooms 11, 12, 13 and 17 of the permanent exhibition.
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