The Mona Lisa, the world’s most famous portrait, is to get a room of its own in the Louvre, as the world’s most visited museum undergoes major new renovation after its director warned that visiting the overcrowded building had become a “physical ordeal”.
Delivering a speech in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century masterpiece, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he felt “humbled” to be in the presence of the Mona Lisa and announced that the portrait would be given its own “special space” within the Louvre.
Macron also announced that from 1 January 2026, visitors to the museum from countries outside the European Union would pay a higher entrance fee.
Macron said the Mona Lisa’s new spot would be “independently accessible compared to the rest of the museum”, with “its own access pass”. The painting currently hangs behind protective glass in the Louvre’s largest room, which also features 16th century works by Venetian masters. But overcrowding is a major problem, as visitors try to catch a glimpse of it through a forest of arms holding up mobile phones.
Last year, the Louvre had 8.7 million visitors – more than 75% of them from outside France, mostly from the US and China as well as Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain. Macron said the Louvre aimed to welcome 12 million visitors a year once it had been renovated.
The renovation will include what Macron called a “new grand entrance” near the Seine, to be opened in 2031, as well as the creation of underground rooms which will expand exhibition space. He said the new entrance, at the Colonnade de Perrault on the museum’s western side, would be financed by the museum’s own resources and by patrons, not by French taxpayers. A competition would be held to choose an architectural project, he said.
The museum’s last big renovation in the 1980s saw the creation of a vast glass pyramid by the Chinese-American architect IM Pei. But it was designed for 4 million annual visitors, and the Louvre now welcomes more than double that number.
The glass pyramid, unveiled in 1989 as part of the late president François Mitterrand’s Louvre project, will remain but now appears outdated as the only arrival point for the museum’s visitors.
In a note to the cultural ministry leaked to the media last week, the Louvre’s president, Laurence des Cars, said the space below the pyramid was not properly insulated from the cold or heat, tended to amplify noise, and was uncomfortable for both the public and the staff. She also raised the alarm over water leaks, failing infrastructure and temperature swings which endanger the conservation of works of art. Visitors faced overcrowding and substandard facilities, she said.
Macron said the project to renovate the Louvre was “realistic”.
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He said: “Today, 9 million visitors a year is obviously a treasure, but the access, flow and security do not allow people to visit the establishment in the best conditions.”
There was no confirmation of how much the renovation would cost, but French media estimated it at hundreds of millions of euros.
Des Cars, speaking ahead of Macron, said: “The Louvre is more than a museum, it’s part of our French identity.”
Macron, who chose the Louvre as the backdrop to his presidential victory speech in 2017, decided to personally address the museum’s crisis. After the recent renovation of Notre Dame cathedral five years after it was damaged by fire, the Louvre could be Macron’s next legacy project, as he seeks to focus on issues that could unite the deeply divided political class and voters.
“The Louvre is the most-visited museum in world, it deserves all our care,” one Élysée official said.
Article by:Source: Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
