“畢加索和大師們”美術展巴黎開幕

Over 200 paintings by Pablo Picasso and an all-star cast of great masters he admired -- Titian, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Goya among others -- went on view in Paris on Wednesday.

Organizers of the "Picasso and the Masters" exhibition spent three years negotiating with museums around the world to borrow some of their most famous paintings for the show, which presents works by Picasso next to the masterpieces that inspired them.

"It's a celebration not only of Picasso, a great genius of the 20th century presented within a pantheon of masters, but of an intimate dialogue between him and his fathers, his peers," wrote co-curator Anne Baldassari in the exhibition catalog.

Madrid's Prado museum was among the most generous, lending seven works including one of its star attractions, "La Maja Desnuda" by the great Spanish artist Francisco de Goya, and pieces by Diego Velazquez and Titian.

"This is an enormous loan, in quality and in quantity. Each work is incredible ... It's as if the Louvre was lending the Mona Lisa," Baldassari told French newspaper le Journal du Dimanche.

London's National Gallery loaned 11 of its possessions, including "A Woman bathing in a Stream" by Rembrandt, while the National Gallery of Art in Washington sent masterpieces including El Greco's "Saint Martin and the Beggar".

French media have reported that transport costs for the 4 million euro ($5.45 million) exhibition alone cost about a million euros, while a similar sum was spent on insurance.

The main bulk of the exhibition, which runs until February 2, 2009, is at the Grand Palais and there are two associated exhibitions in two major Paris museums, Louvre and Orsay museum.

（西班牙著名畫家）帕布魯•畢加索和他所敬仰的一些繪畫大師的200多幅畫作於本週三在法國巴黎展出，這些大師包括（意大利畫家）提香、（西班牙畫家）委拉斯貴支、倫勃朗和戈雅等。

這場題爲《畢加索和大師們》的美術展的籌備工作耗時三年，主辦方向世界各地的博物館借來了一些十分著名的畫作參展。畫展上，畢加索的作品和給了他靈感與啓發的大師們的作品交相輝映。

館長安妮•博爾達薩里在展覽手冊中寫道：“這不僅是一次20世紀天才畫家畢加索和其他美術大師們作品的展示，也是畢加索與他的前輩、同時代畫家的一次親密對話。”

西班牙馬德里的帕德魯美術館是對本次畫展貢獻最大的博物館之一，共借出了七幅畫作，其中包括一幅“鎮館之作”——西班牙著名畫家弗蘭西斯科•德•戈雅的《着衣的瑪哈》，以及委拉斯貴支和提香的作品。

博爾達薩里在接受法國《星期日報》的採訪時說：“這些借來的畫作無論從質上還是量上，都是重量級的。每幅作品都了不得，堪比盧浮宮借出的《蒙娜麗莎》。”

倫敦國家美術館共出借了11幅作品，其中包括（荷蘭畫家）倫勃朗的《在河邊洗澡的韓德瑞克》；華盛頓國家藝術館借出了埃爾•葛雷柯的《聖馬丁與乞丐》等作品。

據法國媒體報道，此次畫展的總成本達400萬歐元（545萬美元），而僅運輸成本這一項就高達100萬歐元，保險費用也達100萬歐元。

此次畫展的主展館在大皇宮，另有兩個聯展在巴黎的兩大博物館——盧浮宮和奧賽博物館舉行。此次畫展將持續至明年2月。