Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the world’s most famous portrait, may soon have a room of its own at the Louvre, Paris museum director Laurence des Cars announced today.
This move would give visitors, many of whom go to the Louvre just to see the iconic painting, a better experience, des Cars told broadcaster France Inter.
“It’s always frustrating when you don’t give visitors the best possible welcome, and this is the case with the Mona Lisa,” he said. “Today it seems to me that a better solution is needed,” she explained, adding that the Louvre is in contact with the Ministry of Culture to find possible solutions.
The Louvre welcomed nearly nine million visitors in 2023. Des Cars said 80% of them – 20,000 people a day – brave the crowds just to glimpse the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile, often taking selfies in front of the painting.
The Mona Lisa is currently on display in the Louvre’s Salle des Etats, the museum’s largest, in a protective glass case, but Da Vinci’s masterpiece shares the room with works by 16th-century Venetian masters. On the opposite side of the room hangs the largest painting in the Louvre, The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese.
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