The story
Founded by Jules Ferry in 1882.1
The École du Louvre was created in 1882 with the mission to "extract from the collections the knowledge they contain, and to train curators, missionaries and excavators". The school was originally dedicated to archaeology, but soon expanded to related disciplines, such as history of art, anthropology and ancient languages.
The school was created in a context of expansion of higher education in Europe, and in France in particular, which was reflected by providing lectures to the general public in addition to providing an education to students. Public lectures and conferences aimed at fee-paying "auditors", and summer school, continues the tradition on which the school was based.
Other prestigious institutions were created during the same period in France, such as the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) or the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC).
In 1920, the school established the General Art History course (known as HGA), that became the foundation for the curriculum. This course would develop into the current graduate programme over the following years.
In 1927, the school was innovative by creating the chair of museology, the first such in the world.
The school was continuously located in the Louvre Palace. For most of the 20th century, it used spaces facing the Seine beneath the Grande Galerie and around the inner courtyard now known as cour Visconti. In 1998, as these spaces were earmarked for the museum expansion known as the Grand Louvre, the school moved to its present location in the Aile de Flore.
The École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts or the Ecole Boulle are also well known art institutions in France.
From Wikipedia’s article on École du Louvre, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4