India, Nov. 7 -- Mona Lisa is redrawn smattered with black paint, for a world of anti-oil protests and a climate crisis. A hidden servant steps forward, in a reimagined Rembrandt. A painting of nude women in a bathhouse is redrawn as men lounging under the glare of a CCTV lens.

The originals are all at the Louvre; the re-imaginings are on display at the branch of the Centre Pompidou in Metz, until February.

In all, works by 100 contemporary artists from around the world feature in the Copyist exhibition, an ambitious joint project by the two institutes.

Anything from among the 35,000 paintings and sculptures at the Louvre was fair game, the artists were told, when the invitations went out from co-curators Donatien Grau (advisor on cont...