Macron pledges Louvre 'renaissance' after decay alarm

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that the Louvre would be “redesigned, restored and enlarged” after the director of the world’s most visited museum voiced alarm about dire conditions inside. Standing in front of the Mona Lisa, Macron said the massive overhaul would include a “special space” for Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece and a brand-new museum entrance, as well as a ticket price hike for visitors from outside the European Union. The president’s aides said the so-called “New Renaissance” project to turn around the Louvre was expected to cost between 700 and 800 million euros ($730 to 830 million).

Under the new plans, the Mona Lisa — which attracts around 20,000 visitors a day — would be “independently accessible” from the rest of the museum, with a separate ticket to see it, Macron said. The museum in central Paris would also have a “new grand entrance” on its eastern facade to help ease congestion at its current glass-and-metal pyramid entry point. That entrance was designed for just four million visitors a year when it was inaugurated in 1988, but more than double that figure walked through it last year. Macron said France would over the next few months launch an “international architecture competition” and select winners by the end of the year to transform the Louvre’s buildings by 2031 at the latest.

The seat of French kings until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles in the late 1600s, the Louvre is regularly listed as the world’s most visited museum.

Beyond the Mona Lisa, it houses masterpieces like Greek marble sculpture the “Venus de Milo” and Eugene Delacroix’s painting “Liberty Leading the People”.

But the Paris landmark has become a subject of national concern after the revelation last week of a confidential memo written by its director Laurence des Cars to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, warning about the “proliferation of damage in museum spaces”.

Some areas “are no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks”, she wrote.

The Louvre’s popularity was also causing a “physical strain” on the historic building, she said. The renovation project will be “colossal”, Macron said.

A first part of the plan, to include the new entrance, the special spot for the Mona Lisa and new exhibition rooms under one of the museum’s courtyards, is to cost around 400 million euros, according to Macron’s team.

This is to be funded entirely from the museum’s coffers, including with income from its Abu Dhabi branch and expected donations, including from the United States.

Further refurbishments across the museum, to be carried out over the next decade without closing it to the public, would cost 300 to 400 million euros, his aides said.

The state — currently facing a spiralling deficit and growing debt — would contribute just 10 million euros of this for initial assessments, they said.

Macron announced a “higher fee for foreign visitors from countries outside the European Union” starting next year to help cover the costs. He said he hoped that the works could help increase the annual number of visitors to 12 million. France relied on donations from billionaires and the public to restore Notre Dame cathedral, which was ravaged by fire in 2019 and reopened last month.

The restoration cost a total of nearly 700 million euros ($730 million) and was financed from the 846 million euros in donations that poured in from 150 countries. Macron scored a major diplomatic coup with Notre Dame’s renovation and reopening, and some critics say he is seeking to score political points with his Louvre announcements amid a protracted political crisis.

“It’s not his field,” grumbled one member of the government. “He’s buying himself popularity points on the cheap.”

Macron’s popularity has dropped to a new low since his first election in 2017, according to a poll published Sunday.

Just 21 percent of respondents to the IFOP poll published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper expressed satisfaction with the 47-year-old president.

Agence France-Presse