On Tuesday 28 January, French president Emmanuel Macron announced major renovation plans for the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The project includes the creation of a new entrance to accommodate more visitors and moving the Mona Lisa to a private room with its own separate access.
The renovations, which should be completed by 2031, are expected to cost between €700 and 800 million, the majority of which the president has said would be covered by the museum’s own resources, ticket sales, patronage and the museum’s €400 million licensing agreement with the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Macron’s announcement comes one week after the French newspaper Le Parisien leaked a memo sent by the Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, warning the minister of culture of the museum’s degradation. Among other issues, the memo cites insulation problems that threaten the proper conservation of artworks and a lack of space to accommodate visitors, particularly around the Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa, that receives an estimated 20,000 visitors per day, will be moved to a private room under the Cour Carrée and will have a separate entrance and access ticket.
An architecture competition will be held to decide on a new main entrance, which should plan to welcome up to 12 million visitors annually. The current main entrance is I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid, built in 1989 to accommodate 4 million annual visitors, less than half the capacity needed for the museum’s 8.7 million visitors in 2024.
To help finance the renovations, ticket prices for non-EU visitors will increase starting in 2026.
