Mona Lisa to get a room of her own in Louvre museum renovation

She’s the star attraction in a museum filled with masterpieces, and soon she will be getting a room of her own.

As part of a big renovation of the Louvre in Paris, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa will be installed in a special exhibition space, “accessible independently of the rest of the museum” — hopefully alleviating the crush of crowds trying to catch a glimpse of her smile.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the overhaul on Tuesday, after warnings that deterioration and overcrowding were threatening the world’s most-visited art museum. With the Mona Lisa peering from behind him, he promised the project would deliver a “rethought, restored, expanded Louvre.”

The renovation will also include a new entrance, to open by 2031, to alleviate congestion at the Pyramid.

Macron didn’t disclose the price tag of the renovation, which has been estimated to run into hundreds of millions. But he said it will not weigh on taxpayers. Instead, it will largely be financed by the museum’s revenue, including donations from patrons, the Louvre Abu Dhabi license and proceeds from ticketing. Visitors from countries outside the European Union will pay higher entrance fees as of next year.

The museum intends to remain open throughout the renovation project.

Louvre director Laurence des Cars had sounded the alarm about one of Europe’s most venerable art institutions. In a private note to the French culture minister, leaked last week, she warned of dilapidated spaces no longer fit to host a growing flow of visitors that was causing a “physical strain.”

The Louvre faced a “proliferation of damage” in parts of the museum, with water leaks and “worrying temperature swings which endanger the conservation of works of art,” she wrote.

The memo also called for finding a new spot for the Mona Lisa, which draws long lines of visitors that complicate crowd control and can block access to other parts of the museum.

The Louvre’s last big overhaul was in the 1980s, when architect I.M. Pei’s glass-and-metal pyramid was unveiled. At the time, the museum was working to accommodate 4 million visitors a year. But those figures have more than doubled: Last year, the museum received 8.7 million visitors.

The French presidency said it had been engaged in “fruitful dialogue” about the Louvre upgrade for several months, including with the government, particularly the culture minister, and with the museum’s director.

The French government has been struggling to rein in ballooning debt and plug a hole in its finances. Political acrimony and budget disputes brought down the government late last year, making it the shortest-serving administration in French modern history and piling pressure on Macron. The new government has yet to agree on a 2025 budget.

The French state funds about half of the Louvre’s budget, including the salaries of some 2,200 employees. The rest comes from private financing, including ticket sales and earnings from restaurants, shops and event bookings, as well as contributions from patrons and partners. That includes royalties from the United Arab Emirates to use the brand for the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Donations funded the entire restoration of Notre Dame, which reopened last month for the first time since a 2019 fire gutted the Parisian cathedral. Money poured in from 340,000 donors — nearly 850 million euros (almost $900 million) — including from corporations such as Total and French billionaires, such as the Arnault family of the LVMH luxury goods empire.

The reopening of the landmark, which drew foreign dignitaries to Paris and was beamed to viewers around world, was a triumph of sorts for Macron at a time when the country was buffeted by political turmoil.

An official with the French presidency said a full diagnosis of the Louvre’s infrastructure had already been commissioned in 2023, though some incidents, including a burst pipe that shut down an exhibition late that year, accelerated the plans, “and today, we can make progress.”

“The state has never been indifferent to the situation at the Louvre, but it must take these new elements into consideration,” the official said ahead of Macron’s announcement, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accordance with protocol. “The collective challenge before us is to determine how we can adapt the Louvre to expectations.”

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