Napoleon’s influence on the Louvre did not end there, he also had his sights on Egyptian antiquities. Quite famously, his actions ignited the great craze of Egyptomania. While his imperialistic desires for Egypt were vanquished by the British in 1801, he did conquer Egypt’s cultural heritage. He successfully turned a failed military expedition into a ‘noble pursuit of knowledge’. Continuing on the belief that France was the natural successor to the Roman empire, Egypt seemed like a logical choice. Napoleon brought along with him a team of savants, among was an artist named Vivant Denon. Based on what he saw during Napoleon’s invasion, Denon wrote a best-selling novel Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte, intensifying France’s growing obsession
