PARIS.- For the first time in France, the Louvre presents a monographic exhibition devoted to the Bavarian-born Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, active in Vienna and Pressburg (now Bratislava) in the late 18th century. As a court sculptor, Messerschmidt executed portraits of members of the imperial family as well as notable intellectuals of his time, but is most celebrated for his series of violently expressive, bizarre and fascinating “character heads”, whose originality and verve still captivate viewers today. The exhibition comprises some thirty works, including the head acquired by Louvre in 2005, which is joined by exceptional loans from several German museums, the Belvedere and the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, museums in Budapest and Bratislava, and private collections. This event is part of a special series this season at t