Louvre: If you’ve got it, rent it

It isn’t about art; it’s about money. And the Louvre -- the be-all, end-all repository of art in Paris -- is merely the latest in a parade of museums to raise funds by renting part of its collection to a cash-rich, art-poor institution.

Just as Boston’s Fine Arts Museum has rented French Impressionist paintings to the Bellagio Gallery in Las Vegas and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art has shipped big chunks of its collection to the San Jose Museum of Art, the Louvre has agreed to loan hundreds of works to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in return for an undisclosed sum, estimated at $10 million for the first three years by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The French museum will use the loan fee to pay for a $10-million renovation of its 18th century furniture galleries.

The plan reflects a recent change in the Louvre’s funding. In the past, the museum has been supported almost entirely by the French government. But since 2003, it has been required to raise money for renovations and other special projects.

French law prevents the Louvre from loaning artworks abroad for more than 10 months at a time. The pieces to be shown in Atlanta will rotate periodically in a long-term display in the museum’s new wing, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. In addition, temporary exhibitions assembled from the Louvre loans will travel to the Seattle and Denver art museums.