The Louvre Pyramid in Paris was inaugurated on 30 March 1989. It formed part of a plan to modernise the Louvre Museum, with the departure of the Ministry of Finance from the Richelieu wing and the creation of the main entrance to the museum in the Cour Napoléon, under a glass pyramid. Initiated by President François Mitterrand, the project was entrusted, after no public competition, to the architect Ieoh Ming Pei. The pyramid is not the only one in the courtyard, as three smaller replicas serve as skylights for the underground area. A fifth pyramid, inverted, is built under the ‘Carrousel du Louvre’.