For the First Time, a Selection of Islamic Masterpieces From the Louvre Is Coming to the United States. See the Treasures Soon to Be Displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

The latest exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is set to present 26 Islamic masterworks from the Louvre in Paris. Opening on September 26 and on view through January 18, 2027, “From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art” will showcase objects spanning from the 7th century to the 19th century, crafted in locales as far west as Spain and as far east as India. The display marks the first time that these 26 masterpieces will be in the United States together.

Curated by Simon Rettig of the Asian Art museum and Souraya Noujaim of the Louvre, the exhibition spotlights wide-ranging artifacts of the Islamic world, works made with bronze, wood, ceramics and other materials. Visitors will see the stunning 14th-century Syro-Egyptian Baptistery of Saint Louis basin, and a circa 18th-century Mughal dagger made with Damascus steel, inlaid with gold and featuring a horse head handle. The basin is “an astonishing object, which is in pristine condition,” Rettig, a curator of Islamic art at the museum, tells Smithsonian magazine.

Now, it’s the public, it’s museums’ visitors who make a work of art a masterpiece.” Quick fact: A masterpiece gets a new home A new gallery is being designed for Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre’s most famous artwork. The 33,000 square-foot, custom-built exhibition space is expected to be complete in 2031. The full histories behind many of the works is unknown.

But this exhibition will encourage viewers to explore the journeys that these objects took before eventually being displayed at the museum. For example, Rettig notes, the Saint Louis basin got its name from being associated with Louis IX, and was used for French royal baptisms. However, that particular king was born more than a century before the basin was made.

During the 18th century, the French created a “forged identity” for the basin as part of their culture, the curator says. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the basin’s Islamic roots were widely acknowledged. In 1903, Freer visited a landmark Islamic art exhibition in Paris that Migeon had organized.

The museum displayed Islamic artworks upon its opening, and all of those pieces “tell their own stories,” Rettig says. Witnessing the Louvre works in this new exhibition, he notes, will allow visitors to learn “what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece.” Jess Daninhirsch is a reporting intern focusing on museums for Smithsonian magazine.