Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "La Gioconda" ("Mona Lisa") will be housed in a separate room of the Louvre with a separate ticket sales system, French President Emmanuel Macron said, TASS reports.
Earlier, Louvre Director General Laurence de Cars complained in a letter to the Ministry of Culture about the critical state of the palace. According to her, the museum's premises are experiencing "an alarming dynamic of aging," and some of them "are no longer waterproof." "Alarming temperature fluctuations are being recorded, which threaten the safety of the works of art."
De Car also pointed out the unsatisfactory conditions for visitors: the lack of rest areas, food outlets and toilets that do not meet international standards.
The director is particularly concerned about the presentation of the “Mona Lisa”. She noted that visitors rush to the painting, “without receiving keys to understanding the work and the artist himself, which calls into question the mission of the museum.”
The main problem is related to exceeding the design load: the museum was designed for 4 million visitors per year, but in 2024 it received about 9 million people. De Car has already decided to limit the number of visitors to 30 thousand per day to improve the comfort of visiting.
Leonardo da Vinci painted the “Mona Lisa” in Florence, but in 1516 he took the painting with him to France. After the artist's death in 1519, the portrait was acquired by the French King Francis I. The masterpiece was kept in the Château de Fontainebleau until the time of Louis XIV. He moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles, and after the French Revolution in the late 18th century, it was moved to the Louvre.
