Page "I. M. Pei" Paragraph 81

When François Mitterrand was elected President of France in 1981, he laid out an ambitious plan for a variety of construction projects.

One of these was the renovation of the Louvre Museum.

Mitterrand appointed a civil servant named Emile Biasini to oversee it.

After visiting museums in Europe and the United States, including the US National Gallery, he asked Pei to join the team.

The architect made three secretive trips to Paris, to determine the feasibility of the project ; only one museum employee knew why he was there.

Pei finally agreed that a reconstruction project was not only possible, but necessary for the future of the museum.

He thus became the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre.