Barnstorming Art Pays for Renovation Of Its Paris Home.

PARIS -- When the Musee d'Orsay unveils its makeover this week, visitors will get a fresh view of the world's richest trove of 19th-century artworks by Impressionist masters who essentially financed the Paris museum's $28 million face-lift. Two touring groups of masterworks by Degas, Monet and Renoir and Whistler's portrait of his mother roamed the world for almost two years on a lucrative journey to museums from San Francisco to Madrid, reaping almost $15 million for the remodeling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]