FIRST OFF . . .

Paris’ Louvre needs about $550 million for renovation and intends to ask the New World to come to the aid of the Old. Plans call for the establishing of a Friends of the Louvre Museum fund-raising group in the United States and Canada, museum officials said over the weekend. The group, to be formed “within months,” will concentrate on raising private and corporate money to help finance interior renovations aimed at increasing exhibition space by 80%. The famed landmark that is visited by 3.5 million people yearly, is completing a $331-million expansion program that includes a controversial I.M. Pei-designed underground building in the museum’s central courtyard.