If you find it challenging getting your 10-year-old excited about early European art or the Cubist manifesto, you’re in luck. Through March 17, the Louvre is sharing its hallowed halls with a rather unlikely special exhibit, featuring hundreds of toys and memorabilia from the Star Wars franchise.Action figures, Yoda-masks, plastic lightsabers, film posters, Chewbacca coffee mugs and C-3PO tape dispensers are just a few of the items on display, according to the AFP. The three-room exhibit is housed in the Les Arts Decoratifs museum in a wing of the Louvre, and features more than 450 items from the last 35 years of Star Wars history.  (MORE: 10 Ways Star Wars Changed the Movie Industry)  The collection belongs to Arnaud Grunberg, a toy vendor and collector, who fell in love with Star Wars after seeing the first film at age 11 in 1977. Grunberg tells the AFP he has thousands of toys in his collection, and that while the saga is a youth phenomenon and “an expression of childhood,” it’s an exhibit for everyone.  (READ: Painting Pop Culture: Artists Turn to Star Wars and Fairy Tales for Inspiration)  Indeed, it may excite those who grew up watching the films (both the 1977-83 trilogy and the later three prequels) even more than young kids today. But there’s no doubt that an exhibit of recreations of famous scenes from the films will probably be more entertaining for youngsters than yet another 17th century family portrait.  The recreated scenes (which includes the attack on the Death Star, and Jedis engaged in an arena lightsaber battle) are protected behind glass and are made using action figures and toy vehicles.  (PHOTOS: Star Wars on Earth: A Galaxy Very, Very Close)  Naturally a trip to the Louvre calls for just a smidgen of classiness, so if you’d like to keep up the critical discourse during your visit, we recommend checking out this guide to talking about art like a pro. Lexicon! Surrealist! Futurist! CONCEPTUAL!  Or, you can just take after 10-year-old George Sykes, who told AFP, “It’s awesome! It’s the best exhibit ever!” That works, too.  MORE: Un-Stuffy Museum: The Louvre Goes High-Tech with Video-Console Guides)
An exhibit of movie memorabilia is far, far away from what you'd expect to find in one of the world's most famous art institutions.