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Louvre offers Beyoncé and Jay-Z inspired tour

TOUR: Fans can take a look at the artworks featured in Beyoncé and Jay-Z's music video

THE LOUVRE Museum in Paris is holding guided tours inspired by Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s latest music video, Apes***.

The visuals for the couple’s song features some of the famous artworks held in the world renowned museum.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z fans can embark on a self-guided tour of the 17 paintings and sculptures that appear in the six-minute video.

The tour takes approximately 90 minutes and is currently only available in French. It is believed that it will be made later made available in other languages.

Among the masterpieces on the tour are the monumental white Greek marble Winged Victory of Samothrace – Beyoncé and Jay-Z appear dressed in white in front of it in a scene from the video. Marie Benoist’s Portrait of a Negress is also part of the tour. The painting from 1800 was created six years after France abolished slavery in its Caribbean colonies. Napoleon reintroduced slavery two years after it was initially abolished.

The duo’s music video has been viewed by many as a piece of art in its own right – a celebration of their marriage, of African-Americans, and a comment on the way that prestigious institutions such as the Louvre have ignored black art.

James Smalls, a professor of art history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, said: “In a way, Beyoncé is exploiting/marketing her blackness as creativity — as a kind of weapon — within and against the very Eurocentric system of culture and consumption from which she has benefited.”

Beyoncé and Jay-Z filmed the video for Apes***, the launch single for their new joint album,Everything is Love, in the museum.

It costs $17,500 (£13,000) for a full day’s shoot in the venue, according to reports.

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