The Louvre welcomes the Olympic Games with an exhibition on the Olympic ideals

Olympism, the sporting idea as it was shaped in ancient Greece in accordance with the spirit of the Olympic Games, a philosophy of life that promotes and combines in a harmonious whole the virtues of body and soul, is the subject of the exhibition at the Louvre entitled “Olympism, a modern invention, an ancient heritage’.

From 24 April to 16 September 2024, the Louvre museum, as Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the third time in the summer of 2024, offers the public the opportunity to discover the creation of the first Olympic Games, the pictorial sources them in the late 19th century, the political context of the time and how their organizers have reinvented the games of ancient Greece.

The Louvre lifts the veil and reveals the creation of Olympism. Ancient Greece was the place where the ancient Olympic Games were “born”, so Athens was considered the most ideal city to host the first holding of the modern ones. However, in Paris was born the idea of ​​their revival, their reinvention, in the name of peace promoted by the ideals of sport through the imagination of historians, scientists, artists and politicians. It all started with the conference organized by the French educator and historian Pierre de Coubertin in Paris on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also founded during this conference. Two years later the world sporting event began, in the spring of 1896, in the renovated Panathenaic Stadium, a journey that in 2024 will complete 130 years since the conference and 100 years since the second time they were organized in Paris, in 1924 (the first time was the 1900, as part of the World’s Fair).

The exhibition aims to help the public understand the impact of the archaeological discoveries that Zillieron captured on the ways of communication at the birth of these games, with works such as stamps, posters, postcards, trophies, souvenirs.

In the unique political context of the very young Greek state, the Olympic Games were immediately a significant success, driven by the first modern communication tools applied to sports promotion (trophies, posters, reproductions, stamps, etc.).

The personalities who were at the forefront of this initiative, Greeks and French, besides Pierre de Coubertin, are also shown in the exhibition. Émile Gilliéron (Émile Gilliéron, 1850-1924), a designer of Swiss origin, trained at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and in the Louvre he copied some of the masterpieces there. He settled in Greece and was named the official artist for the Athens Olympic Games in 1896 and the Mesolympiad in 1906, inspired by discoveries in the excavations of major archaeological sites and designed the winners’ trophies.

The exhibition aims to help the public understand the impact of the archaeological discoveries that Zillieron captured on the ways of communication at the birth of these games, with works such as stamps, posters, postcards, trophies, souvenirs. Zillieron is behind the world’s first issue of sports stamps and the birth of Olympic philately. His social and professional connections made him the key figure when it came to creating a new iconography around the Olympic Games.

Through the study of ancient texts and archaeological evidence, less well-known historical and political figures are also mentioned, such as Dimitrios Vikelas, Michel Breal or Spyridon Lambros.

The historian, linguist and teacher Michel Bréal (1832-1915), who was present at the founding congress of the Sorbonne, wanted to revive the Marathon race based, in an original way, on ancient historical sources. He is the spiritual father of a modern sport that has become established worldwide. In the Louvre exhibition there is also the loan from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation of the first Olympic Cup, designed by Breal, created on his instructions by an anonymous French goldsmith and offered in 1896 to the first winner of the race, the Greek Spyridon Loui. It is the most famous Olympic trophy, with a strong historical and symbolic connotation. This “Parisian masterpiece” has never been exhibited in the city where it was created and is one of the axes of the exhibition.

As part of the cultural programming of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the exhibition shows how, in the name of sport, the alliance of disciplines such as philology, history, art history and archeology managed to create this global sports fact.

Alexandre Farnoux, former director of the French School of Athens and professor of Archeology and History of Greek Art at the Sorbonne University, Violaine Jeammet, general curator in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Louvre Museum, and Christina Mitsopoulou, archaeologist at the University of Thessaly and the French School of Athens, are curating the exhibition and the 336-page, 200-illustration catalogue, which will be released alongside the exhibition.