04.21.2026
Adventures In The Louvre has captivated readers with its intimate, revelatory journey into the world’s most famous museum. For this special event, Elaine Sciolino presented the newly updated edition of her book, released in the wake of the dramatic Louvre heist that shocked France and made headlines around the world. With fresh perspectives from her recent reporting for The New York Times and other publications, she offered fresh insight into what the theft reveals about the museum’s history, vulnerabilities, and enduring power. With the curiosity of a journalist, the eye of a storyteller, and the warmth of a seasoned Parisian flâneuse, Sciolino introduced attendees to the artworks she loves most both celebrated and overlooked—and to the people who keep the Louvre alive: curators, restorers, guards, firefighters, artisans, and archivists. opens doors normally closed to the public, guiding readers through the museum’s galleries, rooftops, archives, ateliers, and hidden corners. Part investigative reporting, part travelogue, part cultural history, this presentation illuminated the Louvre as a living, breathing organism magnificent, labyrinthine, and endlessly human. This expanded edition of the book includes a new chapter with updates about the museum, including an ambitious billion-dollar proposal to renovate the Louvre with a new underground entrance and special galleries for the Mona Lisa as well as the brazen 2025 theft of crown jewels from the Apollo Gallery.
About the Speaker
Elaine Sciolino is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times. She is a best-selling author of six books, including, most recently, Adventures in the Louvre, named an Economist and a Library Journal best book of the year, a Smithsonian Magazine best travel book, and a New York Observer best art book. Her earlier books include The Seine, The Only Street in Paris, La Seduction, and Persian Mirrors, based on her years covering Iran since the 1979 revolution. Sciolino has been decorated chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest honor of the French state, for her “special contribution” to the friendship between France and the United States. She serves on the Executive Committee of Reporters Without Borders and on advisory councils for French and for Iranian studies at Princeton University. Born in Buffalo, New York, she holds a master’s degree in French history from New York University and several honorary doctorates. She has lived in Paris since 2002.