Louvre-Lens
Lens, France
The Louvre-Lens is an art museum in Lens, in the former coal-mining region of northern France. Opened in 2012 as a satellite of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, it was built on a reclaimed colliery site to a low, light-filled design by the Japanese firm SANAA, as part of an effort to bring the national collections to a wider regional audience.
Its centrepiece is the Galerie du Temps, a long open gallery in which works lent from the Louvre are displayed together in a single chronological sweep rather than divided by department, complemented by a programme of temporary exhibitions.