Will the Mona Lisa be moved?

For several days, Mona Lisa has been attracting even more attention than usual, following the President of the Louvre Museum, Laurence des Cars, discussing on France Inter a project to relocate the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The reason? The museum's desire to improve the exhibition conditions for Leonardo Da Vinci's painting. Indeed, every day, 80% of Louvre visitors - around 8.9 million people in 2023 and 20,000 per day - gaze upon the Mona Lisa, yet the experience seems far from incredible for visitors who face a tedious queue and several minutes of waiting to glimpse the world's most famous painting for a brief moment. It's no coincidence that the website Coupon Birds recently recorded over 37.1% negative reviews of Leonardo da Vinci's painting, earning it the title of "most disappointing masterpiece in the world." "It's always frustrating when we're not quite meeting the hospitality standards, and that's the case with the Mona Lisa," remarked museum president Laurence des Cars, who has been advocating since her appointment in 2021 to end uncontrolled visitor flows and restore a focus on "quality and pleasure." But where to relocate the Mona Lisa?

Faced with an increasingly unpleasant situation, the Louvre has initiated discussions with the Ministry of Culture to explore relocating the Mona Lisa. However, the challenges are significant. Despite having 72,000 square meters of exhibition space, there's currently no suitable location where the Mona Lisa could have its own gallery. This would necessitate a substantial renovation of the facilities, as Laurence des Cars has long envisioned. In 2022, she had already presented a plan, including creating a dedicated space for the Mona Lisa. Now, the main hurdle will be convincing the Ministry of Public Finance of the operation's necessity, estimated at 500 million euros according to Le Figaro. Funding-wise, a ticket price increase, which already rose by 30% in early January, is not among the options, assured Laurence des Cars. One thing is certain: the Mona Lisa will not leave the museum, its home since 1945, contrary to some wishes. In fact, the State Council rejected the International Restitution association's request to return the painting to Italy, acting on behalf of the painter's heirs' descendants and urging the work's removal from the museum's inventory.