By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Korean tourists will be able to appreciate the masterpieces at the Louve with commentaries in their mother tongue, following the museum's new guide system sponsored by Korean Air.
The carrier and the museum announced the latter's adoption of a new multimedia guiding system in Korean at the Louvre Tuesday. Korean Air Chairman and CEO Cho Yang-hoo, Louvre director Henri Loyrette, and Korean ambassador to France Cho Il-hwan took part in the event.
After deciding to sponsor the guide service of the Louvre, one of the world's three top museums, Korean Air succeeded in persuading the museum to adopt Korean as the seventh language in its guide system.
``The new multimedia service will be a pleasure to art-lovers all over the world,'' Cho said.
``As Korean Air has become one of the world's top airlines thanks to Korean people's support, we've made the Korean-language service available at the museum in return for it. Now Koreans will be able to have an in-depth understanding of the works of art and feel pride in their mother tongue and their homeland,'' he said.
Korean commentaries on 600 art pieces are available on PDAs. The carrier will sponsor the service at the museum for the next six years.
A Korean Air official said the museum asked for the sponsorship of the Korean carrier as it saw a similarity between the two sides _ Korean Air's image of being a traditional but future-oriented carrier, and the museum's vision seeking harmony between tradition and modernity.
He said the partnership was also attributable to the carrier's long-term friendship with France, including cooperation with Airbus and Air France from the beginning of its business; company heads' chairmanship for the Korea-France High-Level Businessmen's Club; and their receiving of the Legion D'honneur from the French government.
``The Louvre also developed confidence in Korean Air in 2006 when we conveyed its paintings between the two countries for an exhibition held in Seoul to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the two nations' diplomatic ties,'' he said.
To celebrate the new service, Korean Air decorated one of its aircraft with the image of the Mona Lisa formed by small ``hangeul'' letters. The flight began operating on the Incheon-Paris route Tuesday.