Igorot Artifact at the Louvre

It was in April 2003, on my 5th visit to France that I was able to fully explore the Musée du Louvre (the Louvre Museum), reputed to be the world's most visited art museum. I went there early Saturday morning and marveled at the amount and beauty of the exhibits. I wouldn't consider myself an art enthusiast, but even an ordinary Joe like me appreciate beautiful creations. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo were amongst the most popular exhibits with plenty of excited visitors taking photographs of these.

Egyptian antiques dominate one section - I read somewhere that most of Egypt's ancient treasures are either in France or in England. The oldest item I saw was a wall painting that was 4000+ years old, though there could be older artifacts which I was not able to view.

A lot of the artworks were done by artists from France, Italy and Spain and I spent most of the morning and afternoon going over them. The afternoon was almost ending as I drew to a small section of the museum featuring American, Asian and Oceanian antiques. My heart was pounding in anticipation as I wondered if there was an exhibit from the Philippines. I saw just one representing our country of 80+ million people. Enclosed in a glass box was a carved wooden figurine holding a bowl. It was a type of bulul, and an engraved note indicated that it was previously owned by the anthropologist William Beyer.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia.org