Louvre Islamic Wing, Tarun J Tejpal, Untouchable, Servants
Matthew Sweet visits the newly-opened Islamic art wing at the Louvre in Paris. Plus the new novel by Tarun J Tejpal, a review of the film Untouchable, and the history of servants.
Matthew Sweet examines the newly opened Islamic art wing at the Paris Louvre with Karl Sharro . It's a contemporary home to the museum's collection of 18 000 works and marks the museum's greatest development since the iconic glass pyramid constructed twenty years ago. To house the new wing, architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti created a new glass structure with a unique undulating roof, sitting in the Louvre's Visconti courtyard. The new wing aims to exhibit a large portion of the Louvre's collection of 18,000 works,spanning from the 7th to the 19th century and showcases many pieces to the public for the first time.
Matthew also talks to Tarun J Tejpal, a novelist and journalist who founded Tehelka a leading weekly political magazine in India. His latest novel, The Story of My Assassins, takes as its central protagonist a founder of a weekly political magazine who is the target of a group of hitmen.
There's a review, from Paris of the global hit comedy about disability, race and class Untouchable.
And Pamela Cox and Emma Griffin, a Radio3 New Generation Thinker, take Night Waves downstairs to discuss the history of servants.
Producer: Natalie Steed.