Which French president launched the Grand Louvre project for the 1989 bicentennial?

François Mitterrand launched the Grand Louvre project for the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution.

Announced in 1981, the project aimed to devote nearly the entire Louvre Palace to museum use. That required moving the Finance Ministry, which had occupied the palace’s Richelieu Wing since the 19th century, and reorganizing the museum’s galleries and visitor circulation.

Mitterrand selected the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei in 1983. Pei’s plan placed a modern glass pyramid in the Cour Napoléon above a large underground entrance hall. The pyramid became the project’s most recognizable—and controversial—feature, with critics objecting to its modern appearance beside the historic palace.

The project was not fully finished in 1989: the pyramid and underground lobby opened that year, while the renovated Richelieu Wing opened in 1993. Jacques Chirac, one of the wrong options, was Paris’s mayor and initially questioned aspects of the design, but he did not launch the Grand Louvre.