The Mona Lisa moves and to see it you will pay more

The Mona Lisa, the iconic picture of Leonardo da Vinci, will be transferred to a new “special space” of the Louvre“accessible independently from the rest of the museum and for this reason with its own entrance ticket”. This was announced by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, visiting the Museum symbol of the Parisian capital after the reporting of the director on the degradation in which he pours the building.

During a speech pronounced in front of the famous canvas, Macron also asked the Minister of Culture, Rachida Data, to “prepare a higher tariff For foreign visitors from non-EU countries “to be entered into force” January 1, 2026 “. The renovated Louvre will aim to welcome about” 12 million visitors per year “, compared to almost nine in 2024, has the president announced.

The increase in the ticket for visitors from non-EU countries had been announced last October by the same data. On that occasion the minister had also spoken of the possibility of making a cost of 5 euros pay to enter Dame.

A caveau for the masterpiece

For almost a year the Louvre has been thinking of moving “La Gioconda” for the Louvre In an underground room of the Parisian museum, also to put an end to the complaints of tourists who would like to stop longer in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. The hypothesis was anticipated, in fact, in April 2024 by the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, speaking of the possible transfer of the Mona Lisa in a newly built caveau, also to ensure perfect conservation of the painting, currently protected by an antipro -social glass and anti -reflex, together with strictly controlled temperature and humidity settings.

A new underground chamber would be part of a future renovation of the “Grand Louvre”, with a new entrance to the museum. Visitors would avoid entry with the famous glass pyramid and would have led directly to the underground rooms: one for Mona Lisa and the other for temporary exhibitions. “Le Figaro” estimated the budget for the renovation of the Louvre in 500 million euros.

At the beginning of the spring of 2024 it was the Louvre director, Laurence des Cars, indicated the transfer of the popular work of art to a special room built in the Museum basement. “We do not welcome visitors very well in this room, so we believe we do not do our job well,” De Cars had said to the staff and Louvre supervisors on that occasion.

“Moving the Mona Lisa in a separate room could put an end to the audience disappointment”. “We thought about it for a long time, but this time we all agree,” he told “Le Figaro” Vincent Delieuvin, chief curator of Italian painting of the sixteenth century of the Louvre. “It is a large room and the Mona Lisa is basically, behind her safety glass, so at first glance it looks like a stamp,” he underlined.

Every year the Louvre receives between 9 and 10 million visitors and, according to the museum officials, the Mona Lisa is the main attraction for 80%. In the days of greater turnout, also 25,000 people queue to see it for a handful of seconds. The popularity of the painting has led other attempts to improve visual experience, including the repainting of the walls of the yellow egg room to night blue in 2019, as well as a change in the system of queues for visitors.

Vincent Delieuvin supported in an interview, always in Le Figaro, that the impact of social media and mass tourism requires greater effort, especially after the celebrity of the work of art has increased following the theft in 1911 “We must accept the status of global icon of the painting, which escapes our control,” he had the opportunity to recognize the director De Cars

In 2019, the year in which the 500 years of the death of Leonardo da Vinci were celebrated, “La Gioconda”, which is considered not transportable for safety reasons, temporarily moved within the Louvre to allow a better performance of the renewal works of the Salle des Etats (where the iconic and enigmatic masterpiece of art history is located). For about three months the painting was exceptionally transferred to the Médicis Galerie, to the second floor of the Richelieu Ala (the room 801). Galerie Médicis is one of the most vast in the museum and could welcome the numerous visitors that Leonardo’s masterpiece traditionally attracts. The previous movement internal to the Louvre for “La Gioconda” took place from 2002 to 2005 always for work of accommodation in the room.