Louvre visitors forced to go through ‘Mona Lisa journey' before seeing painting

Telegraph

6 hours ago

Visitors to the Louvre will be forced to traipse through a 'Mona Lisa journey' covering a vast 32,000 square foot reception area to get a glimpse of the painting, the museum's director has announced.
In January, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, confirmed that British and other non-EU tourists would be asked to pay more to view Leonardo da Vinci's portrait, and that a 'grand new entrance' to the Louvre would also be built.
The extra cost would go towards restoring the museum, which has been plagued by overcrowding, leaks and outdated facilities. On Monday it was brought to a halt by its own striking staff, who say it is crumbling under the weight of mass tourism.
Mr Macron also made it clear that the portrait, which currently hangs in the Salles des États opposite Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, would be moved to a new 'special area' of the Louvre, 'accessible independently from the rest of the museum and for this reason endowed with its own access pass'.
Laurence des Cars, the Louvre's director, revealed fresh details of how it would be exhibited as part of a massive overhaul of the world's most visited museum.
She told Le Figaro, a French newspaper: 'An entire 'Mona Lisa journey' covering 3,000 square metres (32,000sq ft) will be offered to the public, which the architects will have to imagine and design.
'Comprising a reception area, an entrance hall and the room where the painting will be displayed, it will not only allow visitors to contemplate the Mona Lisa, which is difficult to do today, but also to understand it thanks to educational tools explaining its history.
'The tour must be of the highest quality, in keeping with the world-famous masterpiece it will showcase.'
Starting from 2031, she said the Louvre ticket would give access to the entire museum, 'with an additional charge for the 'Mona Lisa tour', the amount of which has not yet been determined'.
Beyond the extra cost of the Mona Lisa tour, non-EU residents including British tourists would start paying a higher museum entrance fee as of next year, she confirmed. It will not be possible to only enter the museum to view the Mona Lisa.
'That is not the idea,' she said, pointing out that polls suggested that 70 per cent of visitors 'say they want to see the Mona Lisa, but they don't want to see just that – they want to see the Louvre in all its diversity and richness.'
In particular, she said, visitors would be treated to the other da Vinci paintings in the Louvre's possession.
Five works by da Vinci
'We are the only museum in the world to have five works by Leonardo da Vinci, and, while we recognise that the Mona Lisa has become an icon, we will continue to encourage and invite our visitors to discover our other 'Mona Lisas',' she said.
The Elysée has estimated that the overhaul will cost around €800 million (£682 million) and will come from the museum's 'own resources'.
In January, Mr Macron said the new 'grand entrance' would be opened at the eastern end at the Louvre colonnade, opposite the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church, to take the strain off the main glass pyramid entrance.
The area housing the Mona Lisa will be built under the Cour Carrée, one of the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace.
'What is at stake is not only new entrances and new rooms, but also the end of queues, a better flow of visitors through the museum, and much faster access to the collections,' said Ms des Cars. 'Currently, it takes an average of 20 minutes for a visitor to get to admire our masterpieces, which is too long.'