Moving the Mona Lisa to a dedicated underground room: the Louvre's idea

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, perhaps the world’s most famous painting, could change location. This was suggested in recent hours by Louvre director Laurence des Cars: in fact, the Paris museum is considering moving the world-famous work to an underground room to improve the visitor experience. After the Mona Lisa was awarded the little-coveted title of “most disappointing work in the world” (following a survey conducted by the website CouponBirds of more than 18,000 comments left on the web) because of the unpleasant experience that so many visitors are forced to have in order to see it (long lines, crowding in front of the work, excessive distance), the museum is considering taking corrective action.

“We don’t welcome visitors very well in this room, so we feel that we are not doing our job properly,” Des Cars said during a meeting with 70 museum employees in early April devoted specifically to the topic ofwelcoming visitors. "Moving the Mona Lisa to a separate room could end the public’s disappointment." Le Figaro newspaper reports a statement by Vincent Delieuvin, the Louvre’s chief curator for 16th-century Italian painting, that all Louvre employees agree. The proposed new home for the painting is a room that should be ready after the museum’s renovations that will start in the future as part of the Grand Louvre project: visitors will skip the entrance from the glass pyramid and enter directly into the museum’s basement, where there will be a room for the Mona Lisa and other rooms for temporary exhibitions.

“Nowadays,” Delieuvin said, “you have to have seen at least once in your life something that everyone is talking about, and the Mona Lisa is clearly one of those must-see masterpieces.” “We have to accept the painting’s status as a global icon, which is beyond our control,” added Laurence des Cars. No details yet, however, on possible dates.

Moving the Mona Lisa to a dedicated underground room: the Louvre's idea

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