Mona Lisa could get a large separate room in the Louvre

(Patria) - The Mona Lisa, the world's most famous portrait, could get its own room in the Louvre, said the president of the Paris museum.

Such a move would provide visitors, many of whom visit the Louvre only because of the famous painting, with a better experience, said Laurence des Cars for the television station France Inter.

- We are not welcoming visitors well in this room, so we believe we are not doing our job properly.

Moving the Mona Lisa to a separate room could put an end to public disappointment - she said, adding that the Louvre is in contact with the Ministry of Culture regarding possible solutions.

The Louvre, the most popular museum in the world, received nearly nine million visitors in 2023.

Des Cars says that 80% of them, or 20,000 people daily, came to see the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa, often taking selfies in front of the painting.

Vincent Delieuvin, the chief curator of the collection of 16th-century Italian painting, told the French newspaper Le Figaro, however, that they have been thinking about this move for a long time and that the time has finally come to do something on that front and that everyone agrees on it.

- It is a large room, and the Mona Lisa is at the back, behind safety glass, so at first glance it looks like a postage stamp. Leonardo da Vinci wanted to establish a face-to-face relationship between the painting and the person observing it - he added.

Let us recall, the Mona Lisa was also the target of a protest in January, after activists threw pumpkin soup at it.

It did not suffer any damage, but the incident was condemned by Culture Minister Rachida Dati as an attack on French heritage.