Hindus are urging world’s-largest and top-ranking “Musée du Louvre” (Louvre Museum) of Paris, which owns Mona Lisa, to establish a permanent Gallery of Hindu Art.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that Louvre; which claimed itself “a universal museum”, a “Museum among museums” and “an institution from which people expect the very best”; should exhibit its universality by sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.
Moreover, as majority share of Louvre’s revenue came from state subsidies, it should be more inclusive by not ignoring the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents; Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated. Louvre is said to have about 380,000 objects, but a search on official Louvre website using “Hindu” and “Hinduism” keywords revealed no artifacts.
Rajan Zed suggested Louvre President-Director Jean-Luc Martinez that if Louvre wanted to stay “world-class” and meet its claimed high cultural standards, it should seriously explore the idea of Gallery of Hindu Art. If Louvre needed any Hinduism help, he or other Hindu scholars would gladly assist, Zed added.
Zed further said that Hinduism was very visible all over the world with active worship taking place at temples spread around the world and festivals being celebrated in various cities and towns regularly. Moreover, yoga, introduced and nourished by Hinduism; was practiced in yoga studios, educational institutions, workplaces, homes, etc., all over the world.
Rajan Zed noted that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities.
Launched in 1793, Louvre’s collections-claimed to be “among the finest in the world”-also include renowned Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Seated Scribe and the Venus de Milo. It has gallery of Islamic art displaying some 3,000 objects. In 2015, it received about 8.6 million visitors.