The Mona Lisa is to be moved to a new exhibition space at the Louvre in Paris as part of a plan to renovate the world’s most visited museum.
The change is due to be introduced by 2031 and visitors will be charged separately to see the painting, so the masterpiece created by Leonardo da Vinci was in front of Emmanuel Macron as he announced it.
The French president was outlining his new Renaissance project, which includes an international competition to design a second entrance to relieve growing pressure from visitors under the famous glass pyramid.
Tariff changes will also be introduced from next January, so non-EU residents, including tourists from the UK, will pay more to visit.
Macron was responding to warnings from Louvre director Laurence des Cars to the government that the museum was suffering from serious problems of overcrowding and failing infrastructure.
In an article published earlier this month, Ms. des Cars said the pyramid, which has held the unique entrance to the gallery since 1989, was “structurally untenable” for more than nine million visitors a year.
“From everyone’s point of view, the presentation of the Mona Lisa is something to see,” she said.
About three-quarters of the museum’s 30,000 daily visitors go to see the Leonardo da Vinci painting, but the constant stream of people passing through the Salle des États, spending an average of 50 seconds looking at the painting and taking photos, has made the experience a test of endurance.
“The public has no way of understanding the artist’s work, and it raises questions about the mission of our entire public service,” Ms. Des Carres said in her letter.
Under Macron’s project, the museum’s east facade — today with a classical colonnade fronted by an artificial moat and a little-used esplanade — will be redesigned.
A new entrance will provide immediate access to new underground exhibition spaces under the Cour Carré, which will connect with the area beneath the pyramid.
Macron said the new facade – the biggest change to the museum since President Francois Mitterrand’s Grand Louvre project 40 years ago – ties in with the city’s plans to create a tree-filled “green” zone on the Esplanade.
He said it would help integrate the museum into the city and “give it back to Parisians.”
He said removing the Mona Lisa from its current location would make it easier for the museum to properly present it and to view other “often overlooked” works of art on display in the Salle des États.
Major renovations will also be carried out in the coming years to modernize the infrastructure and provide new toilets, restaurants and relaxation facilities.
The total cost is hundreds of millions of euros.
Macron said the project would cost taxpayers nothing, as it would be funded through ticket sales, donations and the museum’s sponsorship agreement with Louvre Abu Dhabi.
The president, whose powers have been significantly curtailed since losing control of the French parliament six months ago, is looking for a new reason to assert his legacy.
His highly praised leadership in the post-fire reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral appears to have whetted his appetite for a similarly massive project at the Louvre.
