The News
Thursday 28 of March 2024

The Louvre museum pays tribute to pyramid's architect Pei


AP Photo, I.M. Pei,FILE - In this March 29, 1989, file photo, Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei laughs while posing for a portrait in front of the Louvre glass pyramid, which he designed, in the museum's Napoleon Courtyard, prior to its inauguration in Paris. Pei, the globe-trotting architect who revived the Louvre museum in Paris with a giant glass pyramid and captured the spirit of rebellion at the multi-shaped Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has died at age 102, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, May 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Pierre Gleizes, File)
AP Photo, I.M. Pei,FILE - In this March 29, 1989, file photo, Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei laughs while posing for a portrait in front of the Louvre glass pyramid, which he designed, in the museum's Napoleon Courtyard, prior to its inauguration in Paris. Pei, the globe-trotting architect who revived the Louvre museum in Paris with a giant glass pyramid and captured the spirit of rebellion at the multi-shaped Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has died at age 102, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, May 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Pierre Gleizes, File)

PARIS (AP) — Paris’ Louvre museum is paying tribute to the architect of its giant glass pyramid, I.M. Pei, who has died at age 102.

The Louvre’s employees will gather Friday afternoon under the pyramid to commemorate Pei.

The President-director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, has expressed his “huge sadness.”

France’s former culture minister, Jack Lang, who was in office when the pyramid plan was unveiled in 1984, remembers an “extraordinary gentle man” who “inspired respect because he himself was very respectful of the history of the country.”

The project launched by President Francois Mitterrand was met with much controversy.

“It shows that you must never fear to be audacious because in the end, when you bet on intelligence and beauty, it’s a success”, Lang told The Associated Press on Friday.