Mona Lisa to Get its Own Gallery in Upcoming Louvre Renovation
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the Mona Lisa will receive its own dedicated gallery inside the Louvre Museum, which is set to undergo major renovations and expansion. The work on this Paris landmark is expected to take up to 10 years to complete.
The renovation project has been branded as the “Louvre New Renaissance” and will include a new entrance near the River Seine. Its completion is expected in 2031 and will also feature new underground rooms.
French officials have not disclosed the project’s cost, which seeks to modernize the world’s most visited museum, but it is estimated to run into the hundreds of millions. The Louvre has not undergone an overhaul since the 1980s when the now-iconic glass pyramid was introduced to the premises.
The Mona Lisa´s ´personal´ gallery inside the Louvre
Macron announced that the renovations will allow Leonardo Da Vinci‘s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, to be moved to its own personal gallery inside the Louvre Museum. The room will be exclusively dedicated to this painting and will be accessible to visitors through a special ticket. According to Macron, this would ease visitor congestion in the museum and allow visitors to access the painting more easily.
The Mona Lisa is currently exhibited behind protective glass in the museum’s largest room, which is often overcrowded, and stacked with long queues of visitors who want to see the painting. This also makes other great works from Venetian painters like Titian and Veronese go unnoticed by many museumgoers.
The #Louvre Museum in #Paris, the world's largest museum, was designed to host four million visitors per year. It receives more than twice that amount.
French President Emmanuel Macron is championing the cause for its renovation, which some say is to achieve political ends
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) January 28, 2025
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Approximately 8.7 million people visited the Louvre Museum in 2024. Over three-quarters of those who visited the museum were foreigners, with a large portion being from the United States, China, Italy, Germany, the UK, and Spain.
Macron says the renovation will be financed by ticket sales, and licensing money from the museum’s Abu Dhabi branch
The Louvre museum is one of France’s greatest cultural assets, alongside the Eiffel Tower. President Macron also announced a forthcoming competition to choose the design for the new Louvre Museum.
International news outlets have reported that top French officials estimate the renovation will cost somewhere between 730 and 834 million Euros ($760-868 million USD) over the next ten years. Half of these funds are estimated to be allocated to the creation of the new entrance.
French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled an ambitious renovation project for the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum.
But the announcement comes as his government is looking to bring down public spending.
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) January 29, 2025
President Macron also announced ticket prices for the museum will be raised for foreigners to 23 Euros (USD $23.96). Currently, half of the Louvre’s budget is financed by the French government, which includes the wages of 2,200 employees. The other half is managed and provided by private funds, as well as restaurant and shop earnings.
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