A graceful dancer in marble, Danseuse au tambourin, by Jean-Francois Lorta (1752-1837) is on loan from the Louvre. (Pierre Philibert/Louvre) Hundreds of works of fine art on loan from the Louvre are on display at Musée Nationale des Beaux Arts in Quebec City starting Thursday.

Works ranging from Egyptian antiquities to household items of the 19th century have been lent by the French museum to celebrate Quebec's 400th anniversary.

The exhibit is an eclectic mix — 274 objects from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Orient, Islamic arts, decorative arts, sculpture and painting.

"I am very proud to say that many of these works will be available to people who have never had the opportunity to travel to France and see the Louvre," museum director John Porter told CBC News. "You don't have to have a PhD in art history to appreciate this exhibition."

The Louvre is home to thousands of artifacts ranging across many different styles and centuries.

The Quebec museum has arranged the artifacts on loan by themes:

• Loving and dying, which includes ancient carvings.
• Learning and making, which includes studies and sketches for sculptures.
• Dwelling and decorating, which includes architectural elements, ceramics and jewelry.
• Celebrating and enjoying, which includes portraits of celebrations across the ages.

"In the Louvre, you won't see a pharaonic sculpture just aside a medieval sculpture or a painting of the 18th century. You won't have that," Porter said. "And that visual show we have now: nobody has ever seen it before, and nobody will ever see it again."

Included in the exhibit is an engraved sarcophagus that is usually not allowed to leave the Louvre and a statue of Zephyrus, the god of wind as he takes Psyche away to marry Cupid.

Zephyr et Psyche by Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel captures the god of wind as he takes Psyche away to marry Cupid. (Pierre Philibert/Louvre) A special tactile sculpture gallery includes casts of ancient works, which visitors are allowed to touch.

More modern works include the painting L'Atelier de Corot from 1873 showing the studio of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot alongside his sculpture of Daphnis and Chloe.

Working with the Louvre and transporting such rare works to Quebec was a huge undertaking.

The works travelled in unmarked crates on secret flights for security reasons.

Quebec curators worked with their counterparts in France to arrange the show thematically and choose the right pieces.

The juxtaposition of different time periods shows you things about the pieces you might not normally notice, says curator Line Ouellette, who worked on the Loving and Dying exhibit, which has sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome alongside more recent neo-classical sculptures.

Also on Thursday, Quebec Minister of Social Services Philippe Couillard announced an additional $200,000 to support and promote the exhibit.

More than 17,000 tickets have already been reserved for the exhibit, which will be on display until the end of October.