Paris has an incredible number of museums and galleries and you can find some of the world’s most famous artworks in their permanent collections. Add to that the many world-class exhibitions that come to town every year and it can be difficult to know where to start.
To make it simpler, we’ve rounded up some of the very best artworks in Paris’s permanent collections. This isn’t a list of the city’s most famous artworks (although you can find a short roundup of those pieces and their whereabouts in the paragraph below); rather, this list highlights those slightly less well-known pieces that are still a must-see for any art lover in Paris.
What is the most famous artwork in Paris?
Undoubtedly, Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ is the most famous painting in Paris (never mind that it was actually painted by an Italian, in Italy). An estimated three-quarters of the museum’s 30,000 daily visitors make the pilgrimage to see the painting, so to cope with these high numbers, the Louvre has announced some major changes. But what are the other famous artworks in Paris? Some of the most iconic include ‘Liberty Leading the People’ by Eugène Delacroix (Louvre), ‘Aphrodite of Milos’ (also known as the Venus de Milo) by Alexandros of Antioch (Louvre), ‘Starry Night Over the Rhône’ by Vincent van Gogh (Musée d’Orsay), ‘Self-Portrait’ by Vincent van Gogh (Musée d’Orsay), ‘Water Lilies’ by Claude Monet, (Musée de l’Orangerie).
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This article was written by the editorial team at Time Out Paris. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.
