France on Friday started an architectural competition for the daunting task of expanding the Louvre in Paris, in a bid to ease overcrowding at the world’s biggest and most visited museum.
The project, which will create a new entrance and give the Mona Lisa a new exhibition space, was first announced in January by President Emmanuel Macron. He set the ambitious target of welcoming 12 million visitors per year — three million more than today — while also solving crowd-management headaches at the museum.
The architectural competition will be decided by a 21-person international jury, which will choose five finalists in October. A winner will be announced in early 2026, according to the Louvre.
Part of the brief is to design a new gallery for the Mona Lisa, the 16th-century masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci that attracts droves of visitors. The museum’s management said on Friday that the new exhibition space would be about 33,000 square feet and should also include room to explain the painting’s history, its famous 1911 theft, and its modern-day iconic status.
“Our aim is to offer a high-quality encounter with this masterpiece,” Laurence des Cars, the Louvre’s president, said in an interview with Le Monde published on Friday, arguing that the space needed to offer “a genuine time for contemplation.”
Visitors will have to book specific tickets to see the Mona Lisa and her enigmatic smile, “with a minimum waiting time,” des Cars said.
François Chatillon, the Louvre’s chief architect, told Le Monde that nowadays the painting was “viewed in a matter of seconds from a distance of several meters.”
“For this new space, the curators want the painting to be closer to visitors, more on their scale,” he said.
Macron had said in January that the dedicated room for the Mona Lisa would be one of several new exhibition spaces created underneath the Cour Carrée, the Louvre’s easternmost courtyard, and connected to the existing museum.
The architectural competition, for a project that French authorities are calling a “New Renaissance” for the Louvre, also calls for plans for a new entrance in the museum’s easternmost facade, near the Seine River.
The aim is to lessen pressure on the Louvre Pyramid, a glass-and-steel structure designed by the architect I.M. Pei in the 1980s, during the museum’s last major overhaul. Long lines form every day at the pyramid, which is currently the museum’s main entrance.
“Pei’s pyramid is brilliant, but it’s no longer enough to accommodate the nine million visitors who flock to our museum every year,” des Cars told Le Monde.
She added that the new entrance would not be a “disruptive” construction like the pyramid, adding that architects should aim to avoid clashing with the classic 17th-century colonnade that adorns the facade.
The Louvre — a former palace that was home to French kings until 1682 — is a major tourist attraction, a symbol of France’s cultural clout and an important soft-power instrument for the French State, which is heavily involved in the project.
Rachida Dati, France’s culture minister, said on X that the renovation marked “a new chapter for Paris and France’s cultural influence.”
She said that ticket proceeds and sponsorships would help pay for the architectural project to create the new entrance and exhibition spaces. Des Cars told Le Monde that the museum had determined a 270 million euro budget, or about $316 million, for that part of the museum’s overhaul.
That does not include plans for a broader modernization of the Louvre’s aging infrastructure, and it is unclear what the total cost of the museum’s overhaul will be. Problems outlined by management and staff in recent months included water leaks, temperature variations that endangered artworks, insufficient restrooms and food facilities, and poor signage.
The museum’s management has taken several steps in recent years to address overcrowding, including by limiting daily attendance to 30,000 people and by raising its basic ticket price to help offset rising energy costs and support its free admission programs geared toward local residents.
Macron had announced in January that the vast renovation would be paid for partly by increasing ticket prices even further for visitors from non-European Union countries, starting next year.
Staff members complain that jam-packed exhibition spaces and wear and tear at the museum have worsened working conditions. Earlier this month, a rare work stoppage shuttered the Louvre for several hours.
Des Cars told Le Monde said that the museum had made reservations mandatory for July and August to help manage the flow of summer tourists. But the upcoming overhaul, she added, will provide “structural and sustainable solutions for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.”
Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
The post France Opens Competition to Expand Overcrowded Louvre appeared first on New York Times.
