The golden age for the collections was inaugu rated early in the reign of Napoleon ITT. by the results of the discoveries of Botta in Assyria, supplemented later by and extended to other parts of Western Asia by Renan and others. The purchase of the immense Campana collection in 1362-63 added greatly to the departments of an tique sculpture, jewelry, bronzes, glass, ceramics (c.2000 vases), and even to the paintings. The splendid policy of sending out Government mis sions to explore and excavate (Missions seienti !ivies et litteraires), either directly or through the French arelueological institutes of Athens, Cairo, and Rome (Ecole franeaise d'Athenes, etc.), crowded the museums with antiquities fresh from the soil, sometimes in great series. Last in date to receive attention were the arts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, especially the minor and industrial arts, but they are now richly represented. The custom of bequeathing eolleetions to the Louvre has steadily grown in France, since the Lacaze legacy of 275 pictures in 1869, and the accessions under the Third Re public have been quite as much due to private generosity as to the use of public funds and the results of archeological excavations.
There are now seven departments: (1) Egyp tian antiquities; (2) Oriental antiquities and ceramics; (3) Greek and Roman antiquities; (4) paintings, drawings, and prints; (5) sculptures of the Middles Ages, Renaissance, and modern times; (6) works of art of the 'Middle Ages, Renaissance, and modern times; (7) marine and ethnographic collections. These departments are each in charge of a conservateur and assistant. The catalogues and other illustrative works is sued are scholarly, and the large group of emi nent scholars in charge have made possible the establishment of the famous Eeole du Louvre in 1882, with advanced courses intended to de velop specialists in archeology and art. The full course of instruction covers three years of study, and the Louvre has thus become in every way the centre in France for the study of past forms of art. Consult Bateau, Le Louvre et son his toire (Paris, 1895).