Paris, France, 14 Dec 2003: Musee Louvre Les trois dames et plus

Musee du Louvre is the largest repository of antiquities and art in the world. Restoration of the august institution met with initial public outcry, but I M Pei's pyramids soon became the Louvre's favourite icons. The understated underground entrance atrium and brilliant light-filled courtyards in the Richelieu wing - Cour Marly and Cour Puget - are the architectural centrepieces from which collection-rich galleries radiate.

Three pieces - da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace - are the Louvre's undisputed mistresses. Priceless. Enigmatic. Ethereal.

Greek statuary line the sculpture gallery. Renaissance sculptors recapture Grecian artistry. Michelango's Rebellious and Dying Slaves convey a life-like contrast in curtailed muscular tension and flaccid resignation. Poetry in marble.

Antiquities from Egypt and the Near East, bounty from Napoleon's Egyptian expeditions, are a collection highlight. Hammurabi's Code is one of the first recorded wriiten laws, preserved in Sumerian cuneiform script on an imposing stela. Awesome.