The Louvre pyramid disappears! See how it was done

Thanks to the work of street artist JR, Paris' famous glass pyramid, which resides at the entrance to the majestic Musée du Louvre, is no longer

Well, sort of. The grand plan to "make the Louvre pyramid disappear" is part of a concentrated optical illusion or trompe l'oeil project, which wasn't exactly an click-your-fingers-and-bam! magic trick - it took cranes and many men to cover the glass structure with JR's signature black and white photograph.

"It's quite crazy being Parisian, passing the pyramid so often, then today realising I can make changes to it and stick things on top of it to create my work," says the French street artist, whose work has appeared all over the world. Amazingly, JR was commissioned by the Louvre to transform I.M. Pei's iconic architectural triumph into a large-scale public installation. Titled JR au Louvre, the installation mirrors the architecture of the buildings in the background and is on display until June 27.

JR's other notable work includes his Women Are Heroes 2008 project in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro where photographed images of local women were pasted to the walls of favelas and other public spaces. He repeated the project in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, India, Cambodia and Le Havre.  You can check out more of his work at @jr and jr-art.net

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