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TheGalerie d'Apollon (French pronunciation:[ɡalʁidapɔlɔ̃]) is a large room of theLouvre Palace, on the first floor of a wing known as thePetite Galerie. Its current setup was first designed in the 1660s. It has been part of theLouvre Museum since the 1790s, was completed under the lead ofFélix Duban in the mid-19th century, and has housed the museum's collection of theFrench Crown Jewels since 1887.
ThePetite Galerie of the Louvre was first built in the 16th century. A second storey with a long room for the display of art was added during the reign ofHenry IV. Known as theGalerie des Rois, it was decorated by artists of the SecondSchool of Fontainebleau, includingToussaint Dubreuil,Jacob Bunel and his wifeMarguerite Bahuche, according to designs byMartin Fréminet.
After a fire in the small gallery destroyed much of it on 6 February 1661,Louis XIV ordered this part of the Louvre to be rebuilt.[1] Architectural work was entrusted toLouis Le Vau, who carried out reconstruction activities between 1661 and 1663, whileCharles Le Brun was assigned responsibility for decorations byJean-Baptiste Colbert.[1] Le Brun's main theme for the room revolved around the movement of the sun through time and space, with the figure ofApollo glorifying Louis as the sun king. The sculptorFrançois Girardon was responsible for the stucco sculptures. This was the first Royal Gallery for Louis, which served as a model for theHall of Mirrors of thePalace of Versailles.
The gallery had not been completed by the time of Louis' death in 1715, and subsequent generations of artists continued to improve the room, such asGaspard and Balthazard Marsy, andThomas Regnaudin.[2] In 1819, Louvre architectPierre Fontaine closed it with awrought iron gate that had been seized in early 1797 from theChâteau de Maisons, still in place.[3]: 75 But the gallery was left unfinished and in disrepair, however, and it had to be propped up in 1826.[3]: 76 It was eventually restored and completed in the mid-19th century under architectFélix Duban, with painterEugène Delacroix contributingApollo Slays the Python for the center of the ceiling,Joseph Guichard paintingTriumph of the Earth or Cybele, andCharles Louis Müller supplyingAurore. The newly completed gallery was inaugurated by PresidentLouis-Napoléon Bonaparte on 5 June 1851.[4]
Having seen the Gallery in 1856, a 13-year-oldHenry James wrote:
the wondrous Galerie d'Apollon...drawn out for me as a long but assured initiation and seeming to form, with its supreme coved ceiling and inordinately shining parquet, a prodigious tube or tunnel through which I inhaled little by little, that is again and again, a general sense ofglory. The glory meant ever so many things at once, not only beauty and art and supreme design, but history and fame and power, the world in fine raised to the richest and noblest expression.[5]
As part of the Louvre, the Galerie d'Apollon is both a national andWorld Heritage Site.[6] It was comprehensively renovated between 2001 and 2004, and again cleaned up in 2019.[7] On 19 October 2025, eight items in the gallerywere stolen.[8]
Besides the sumptuous decoration of the room itself, the gallery's main attractions are the remaining pieces of theFrench Crown Jewels. In 1887, theThird French Republic sold most crown jewels to quell fears of a royalistcoup d'état, from which only jewels of historic significance were exempted. That same year, the 23[citation needed] remaining pieces of jewellery were exhibited in the Galerie d'Apollon, and presented in display cases designed by Louvre architectEdmond Guillaume [fr], together with other precious objects from the Louvre's collections. More display cases were added in 1985 (designed by Daniel Pasgrimaud) and in 2020 (designed by Juan Felipe Alarcon).[7] Some of the most significant pieces[according to whom?] include:
On 19 October 2025, thieves disguised as construction workers stole eight pieces of theFrench Crown Jewels housed in the gallery and valued at approximately €88 million by breaking in through a second floor window during regular visiting hours. The robbery took less than eight minutes, of which the thieves spent four in the gallery.[9][10]
