LIFE Goes to the Louvre, 1953

By Ben Cosgrove / Time.com and Time.com
August 10, 2016
Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
This story originally appeared on time.com.

When it comes to the excellence of their collections, the beauty of their galleries and the sheer breadth of their cultural significance, few museums on earth can match Paris’ monumental jewel, the Louvre. In 1953, when LIFE photographer Dmitri Kessel visited, many of the Louvre’s rooms had recently been reorganized and redecorated — but the intrinsic, inherent grandeur of the vast place (eight miles of galleries) remained undiminished.

Here, LIFE.com presents a selection of Kessel’s pictures of the scenes inside what LIFE unhesitatingly called “the world’s top museum” — a title to which, even today, six decades later, the wonderful, storied, glorious Louvre can arguably still lay claim.
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Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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Credit: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
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By Ben Cosgrove / Time.com and Time.com