[...] Vermeer, the unique jewel in Dutch painting's crown, copied ideas from his contemporaries like every other artist, argues a new major exhibit at the Louvre Museum in Paris that opens Wednesday. [...] Vermeer is not very original because he picks ideas from different contemporaries. Vermeer's 12 oil paintings in the show, including "The Milkmaid" on loan from Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, are hung side-by-side with 58 similar works by his 17th-century rivals such as Gerrit Dou and Garard ter Borch.