The Louvre Museum in Paris has given Hong Kong the world - two of them, in fact.
The museum yesterday presented the University of Hong Kong's art gallery with two copies of cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli's Marly Globes, originally a gift to King Louis XIV in the 17th century.
The terrestrial globe marks the history of great discoveries and the exploration of continents, while the celestial globe represents the position of the stars and planets on the day of the king's birth in 1638.
The globes are renderings from chalcographs - copperplate engravings - created by the king's engraver Jean-Baptiste Nolin, and will be on permanent display at the gallery in Bonham Road.
They are part of an exhibit of 100 etchings and original copperplates on loan from the Louvre until July 30, called 'Engraving the World, The Chalcography of the Louvre Museum'.
Among the collection is a version of the Mona Lisa based on an engraving commissioned by the museum from engraver Antoine-Francois Dezarrois in 1926.
