The French President Emmanuel Macron paid a go to to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa on Tuesday (28 January) to announce a “new renaissance” of the Musée du Louvre, after its director Laurence des Vehicles complained of its derelict state. The president didn’t give any determine for the price of the works, however his representatives cited an estimate of between €700m and €800m. Internally, Des Vehicles had put ahead a determine of €1bn in keeping with a number of sources.
On Tuesday Macron endorsed her pharaonic plan, estimated at €400m, for a brand new entrance on the museum’s jap wing, adopted by subterranean areas, together with a room aside for the Mona Lisa, with a particular entrance ticket, an exhibition gallery and academic areas, together with reception infrastructure. The president predicts that customer numbers will attain 12 million (up from 8.9m in 2023) when the brand new entrance opens in 2031. It could be related to a pedestrian space main in direction of the Samaritaine, the LVMH luxurious resort and mall.
The challenge, Macron mentioned, is “life like” and might be financed by the museum’s incomes and sponsorship (though the French state covers 66% of the donations as tax reductions). He confirmed that, to assist finance this enterprise, ticket costs for vacationers coming from outdoors the European Union will probably be elevated from 1 January 2026. However no funds specifics have in any other case been offered aside from a €10m funding by the Tradition Ministry for preparatory research this 12 months.
The state will conduct a “no much less colossal challenge”, additionally estimated at greater than €400m, to repair and renovate all of the museum’s infrastructure and restore the Grande Galerie of Italian portray, Macron mentioned. After the five-year reconstruction of Notre Dame cathedral, the president introduced the plan as “a brand new step for the nation”.
A number of media retailers famous that the embattled president, who has misplaced management of the parliament and the federal government, is desperately on the lookout for a approach to shore up his legacy. It is not going to be easy as France is struggling to satisfy funds cuts to cut back a report public deficit.
The day earlier than Macron’s go to to the Louvre, the federal government spokesperson Sophie Primas mentioned the president “is simply talking for himself”. “There is no such thing as a manner the state will present €500m to the Louvre and there will probably be no supplementary funds to the €100m allotted this 12 months to help the museum,” she insisted.
Worker unions on the Louvre have additionally joined a rising tide of vital voices from the cultural group, denouncing the large value of the “gigantic and Paris-centred challenge”, and claiming the Louvre has not invested in its upkeep for the previous 4 years.
