FRANCE-ART-MUSEUM-LOUVRE LENS

People visit the Louvre Museum on the first day of its opening to the public, on December 4, 2012 in Lens, northern France. The Louvre museum opened a new satellite branch among the slag heaps of a former mining town Tuesday in a bid to bring high culture and visitors to one of France's poorest areas. Greeted by a group of former miners in overalls and hardhats, President Francois Hollande inaugurated today the Japanese-designed glass and polished-aluminium branch of the Louvre in the northern city of Lens. The 150 million euro ($196 million) project was 60 percent financed by regional authorities in the Nord-Pas-De-Calais region, on the English Channel and the border with Belgium. In the background is seen "La Liberte guidant le peuple" (Liberty Leading the People) by French painter Eugene Delacroix. AFP PHOTO PHILIPPE HUGUEN (Photo by PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP) (Photo by PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP via Getty Images)