The Louvre Pyramid was built as part of a project known as the 'Grand Louvre', first proposed in 1981 by the French president François Mitterrand, to expand and modernize the Louvre Museum.
In the 1970s the centuries-old Louvre Palace struggled to cope with the rising number of visitors. The entrances were too small, each wing had a different entrance and the layout was so confusing that visitors struggled to find the entrance or the exit.
Mitterrand suggested to expand the museum by relocating the Ministry of Finance - which had occupied the Richelieu wing of the Louvre since 1873 - to the Bercy neighborhood. Finally the Louvre Museum could occupy the whole U-shaped building.