Art: Sampling the Louvre It

Opening soon: The Louvre It or Leave It Museum is a strong contender for the Oddest Museum in Minneapolis. Ensconced on the ground floor of a downtown office building, the "museum" is a hodgepodge of eccentric contemporary art gathered by Twin Cities collectors Gary and JoAnn Fink. There are definitely gems amid the dross, but the display is so bizarre it's difficult to see them amid the clutter of jokey Marx Brothers sculptures, carnival awnings and Victorian-era kitsch.

This week some of the good things are crossing the Mississippi for a temporary exhibit that should allow visitors to see them in a better light. Among the gems will be a delicate glass figure sculpted by Nicolas Africano, a sculpture by Deborah Butterfield and photos by Luis Gonzalez Palma, Annie Leibovitz, Sarah Moon, Sebastiao Salgado, Alec Soth, Doug and Mike Starn and the luminous Robert Polidori image shown here: "Temple of David, Beirut," 1996. (Thursday through April 4, free. College of Visual Arts Gallery, 173 Western Av. at Selby, St. Paul. 651-224-3416 or www.cva.edu)