Oh, sure, you could go to Paris to see the art in the Louvre. You could stand in the annoyingly long lines. But why would you want to? Especially when you’ll be able to see them here at the High:

Starting next year, art lovers won’t have to cross the Atlantic to see sculptures and paintings at one of the world’s finest art museums. The Louvre in Paris plans to display some of its renowned collections in the United States, but only at one museum — Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.

It will mark the first time in the Louvre’s 212-year history that the museum has agreed to share entire collections with another museum for an extended period.

The “Louvre in Atlanta” project will be launched in January with an exchange of high school students between Atlanta and Paris followed by the display of some Louvre exhibits at the High Museum starting in the fall of 2006.

As a side note, High director Michael Shapiro was awarded a knighthood in the Order of Arts and Letters from France for putting together the collaboration. I mean, it’s cool and all to be a knight (do we have to call him Sir Michael now?), but the Order of Arts and Letters has got to be one of the least intimidating orders of knights ever.