The Louvre Museum will relocate Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to a dedicated underground gallery with its own entrance as part of a major redevelopment aimed at improving the visitor experience at the world’s most-visited museum.
The project forms part of a wider renovation programme that will expand exhibition space, add new visitor facilities and increase the museum’s annual capacity.
Dedicated Space for the Mona Lisa
The new gallery will be located beneath the Louvre’s eastern courtyard and will display only the Mona Lisa, allowing visitors to view the iconic masterpiece in a space designed specifically for the painting.
Guests will be able to purchase a dedicated ticket to access the gallery directly without entering the rest of the museum.
The design of the new exhibition space will be developed by a team comprising a New York-based architecture firm and a Paris studio, selected following an international competition that attracted around 100 entries.
Addressing Crowding at the Louvre
The project is intended to ease congestion around the museum’s most famous artwork. The Louvre welcomes approximately nine million visitors each year, with around three-quarters of them coming specifically to see the Mona Lisa.
Between 20,000 and 24,000 people pass through the painting’s current gallery every day. Visitors typically have less than one minute to view the artwork, while no more than 250 to 300 people can be admitted to the room at the same time.
The current gallery also contains 43 other paintings, which often receive less attention because of the large crowds focused on Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece.
Part of a Wider Museum Transformation
The new Mona Lisa gallery forms part of a broader redevelopment that museum officials have described as a “new Renaissance” for the Louvre.
Plans include two new underground entrances, additional exhibition galleries, new restaurants and expanded retail facilities. Once completed, the renovation is expected to increase the museum’s annual visitor capacity by approximately three million people.
