Mona Lisa gets dedicated gallery: Louvre unveils major renovation and new pricing

Paris’ iconic Louvre Museum is set to undergo an ambitious €800 million renovation, with completion aimed for 2031. As part of this significant overhaul, visitors hoping to see Leonardo da Vinci’s famed Mona Lisa will soon need to purchase an additional ticket, separate from the general admission.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa gets a private room at Louvre Museum

Louvre Director Laurence des Cars confirmed that the museum’s star attraction will relocate to her own specially designed 3,000 m–gallery under the Cour Carrée courtyard. The Mona Lisa trail is intended to provide a more enjoyable visitor experience and permit greater appreciation and understanding of the masterpiece, an endeavour presently made difficult by huge crowds.

The restorations, which Mr des Cars has called “of great quality”, are accompanied by a new pricing system. Although the final cost of the Mona Lisa ticket remains to be disclosed, the regular Louvre ticket, which is presently €22, will rise for non–EU visitors starting from January 2026.This additional revenue, estimated at €20 million, will contribute to financing the museum’s extensive works.

Nouveau Louvre, the most important redesigning project of the museum since I M Pei’s glass pyramid in the 1980s, will similarly concentrate on de-cluttering areas and enhancing access points to reduce infamous queues. This is an urgent concern; the museum, which welcomes approximately 9 million visitors a year and regularly breaks its 30,000 daily limit, was recently compelled to shut for a day because of a staff walkout in protest at ‘untenable’ working conditions caused by over–crowding. An astonishing 80 percent of tourists make viewing the Mona Lisa a top priority, causing extreme congestion.

President Emmanuel Macron announced the funding strategy months ago, hoping to keep French taxpayers from being charged. Funding will be provided by museum self–funding, such as ticket sales, income from the Louvre Abu Dhabi and private benefactors, and in addition to the hoped–for surcharge on non–EU tourists. Other significant French cultural landmarks such as Versailles and the Musée d'Orsay are likely to do likewise with similar ticketing structures. An international architecture competition for the new Mona Lisa trail and improved entrance routes is set to open on June 27.

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