The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
French President Emmanuel Macron announced a massive overhaul for the Louvre Museum today. It'll include a new entrance and a separate room for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" - the museum's most visited painting. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (Speaking French).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Standing in front of the "Mona Lisa," President Emmanuel Macron announced a colossal project to bring the world's most visited art museum up to modern standards in a time of international mass tourism, the digital age, heightened security requirements and climate change. And for those who think this might not be the time for a culture project with such disarray in the world, Macron had a message.
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MACRON: (Through interpreter) It's especially important to embody a spirit of innovation and boldness and think ambitiously in an era where forceful rhetoric holds hypnotic sway over so many. The importance of culture and art is a message France must convey to the world. This is also a political battle.
BEARDSLEY: In a letter leaked to the press this month, the museum's director detailed its state of dilapidation - leaky ceilings, temperature fluctuations, a lack of facilities for visitors. Elaine Sciolino can attest to that. Her book, "Adventures In The Louvre: How To Fall In Love With The World's Greatest Museum," comes out in April.
ELAINE SCIOLINO: I have one unbreakable rule for visitors - never go to the Louvre on an empty stomach or with a full bladder.
BEARDSLEY: Sciolino remembers seeing buckets collecting drops on one rainy day. She says the former palace is also vulnerable because it lies on the banks of the Seine. She remembers the flood of 2016.
SCIOLINO: In 48 hours, all of these employees wrapped and crated 35,000 art objects stored underneath and hauled them to higher ground. It was the museum's most ambitious evacuation since World War II.
BEARDSLEY: That's when Louvre employees spirited away thousands of artworks ahead of the Nazi invasion.
I meet art critic Didier Rykner next to architect I.M. Pei's glorious glass pyramid, illuminated by the setting sun.
I love it with the sun on it, this lighting.
DIDIER RYKNER: Yes, it's beautiful.
BEARDSLEY: Commissioned in the 1980s by former President Francois Mitterrand, the pyramid entrance was designed to accommodate 4 million visitors a year. Today, there are twice that many. Rykner says the "Mona Lisa" has been another challenge.
RYKNER: It's a problem forever because the "Mona Lisa" - everybody wants to see it, and it is very difficult to manage with the people who want to see it because there are too many.
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MACRON: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "La Joconde," or the "Mona Lisa," said Macron, will be given her own exhibition space. The six-year project will be fully funded by the museum's own resources - ticket sales, sponsorships and the Louvre Abu Dhabi licensing agreement. Rykner believes that politically weakened Macron was looking for another sweeping project after Notre Dame.
RYKNER: I think Emmanuel Macron wants to appear as the savior of the Louvre. It's evident.
BEARDSLEY: Because he just saved Notre Dame?
RYKNER: Yes, he just saved Notre Dame. He's a superhero, and he wants to save the Louvre.
BEARDSLEY: Paris will hold an international architectural competition to build the new entrance and galleries, which will open by 2031 at the latest, says Macron. The reborn Louvre will be a world epicenter for art and the teaching of art history and aims to welcome some 12 million visitors a year. Eleanor Beardsley NPR News, Paris.
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