France’s Louvre Museum could move the Mona Lisa to its own basement room. Here’s why.
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It is the most famous and visited work of art in the world, with up to **ten million admirers a year.**His enigmatic smile has been idolized by art lovers, and even by thieves, soup-loving protesters and even by a man disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair who threw cake in your face.
But now, a new project could prove the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette, right when considering it “too small, too dark”.
The painting of Leonardo da Vinci ‘Mona Lisa’ is about to be moved to give it more space and appease visitors.
In fact, since visitors to the Louvre have an average of 50 seconds to admire the Mona Lisawhich is displayed behind a barrier and bulletproof glass in the center of the Salle des Etats (glass installed in the 1950s to protect it after an acid attack), many have called it the most disappointing masterpiece in the world.
It is really understandable, since the huge number of public and the limited space of the gallery make it difficult to see the Mona Lisa.
Faced with this problem, the director of the Parisian museum now proposes Isolate da Vinci’s chef’s work to enhance the experience:
“Moving the Mona Lisa to a separate room could end public disappointment,” he said. Laurence des Cars, museum director. “Visitors are not being received properly in the current room, so we believe we are not doing our job correctly.”
A new space dedicated to the Mona Lisa, which currently stands in front of ‘Wedding at Cana’ by Paolo Veronesewhich is overlooked, makes sense, both to da Vinci’s painting and to its attention-starved neighbors.
Vincent Delieuvin, chief curator of 16th-century Italian paintingtold the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’: “We have been thinking about it for a long time, but this time everyone agrees.”
“It’s a big room and the Mona Lisa is in the back, behind its safety glass, so at first glance it looks like a postage stamp. Leonardo da Vinci wanted establish a face-to-face relationship between the painting and the person who contemplated it».
It sounds good, but The initiative would involve a major renovation, including the opening of a new entrance to the Louvre palace (on the colonnade façade) and the creation of two new rooms in the basement, under the Louvre’s square courtyard. One of the “underground chambers” would serve as a setting for the Mona Lisa. And while that could help reduce queues and allow direct access for visitors, all this would mean around 500 million euros, which is no music for the French Government and its budget cuts for culture.
Reportedly, the culture Ministry is in favor of the new Grand Louvre project, but it will be necessary to convince the Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire. Le Maire has already said that he hopes to recover €25 billion saved for the 2025 budget and has urged the cultural sector to do its part.
However, that does not deter the museum: “The atmosphere in the museum is already mature,” said des Cars. “We have to accept the painting’s status as a global icon, something that is out of our control.”
