MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The "Mona Lisa" is set to be moved out of the biggest gallery at the Louvre Museum in Paris and into its own dedicated space. French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement this week is aimed at managing crowds. It could also benefit the other artworks that for decades were forced to share a room with the world's most famous painting. NPR's Chloe Veltman has more.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: The Salle des Etats at the Louvre is packed with Venetian Renaissance masterpieces like "The Wedding Feast At Cana," by Paolo Veronese.
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UNIDENTIFIED TIKTOKKER #1: Look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED TIKTOKKER #2: (Gasping) Perfect.
VELTMAN: The Hipstertravels TikTok team posted this video about the artwork in 2023. It depicts a famous biblical scene in which Jesus miraculously turns water into wine.
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UNIDENTIFIED TIKTOKKER #2: I have goosebumps everywhere.
VELTMAN: The painting is hard to miss - colorful, busy and enormous. But most of the Louvres roughly 9 million annual visitors just rush by. They're only interested in what's hanging on the opposite wall.
SOULEYMANE BACHIR DIAGNE: People who are just coming to check their I paid a visit to the "Mona Lisa" box.
VELTMAN: Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a professor of French and philosophy at Columbia University who's given lectures on the Louvres art collection on behalf of the museum.
DIAGNE: And even if you go to that room with the intention of looking at the other paintings, you would be distracted by everything happening around the "Mona Lisa".
VELTMAN: Speaking at the Louvre on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said moving Leonardo da Vinci's painting out of the Salle des Etats would help visitors connect with the room's many neglected masterpieces by artists like Veronese, Titian and Tintoretto.
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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (Speaking French).
VELTMAN: College de France professor and 2024 Louvre Writer in Residence Antoine Compagnon was present at the museum for Macron's speech. He says he's all for putting the "Mona Lisa" in its own special room.
ANTOINE COMPAGNON: It will free the Salle des Etats.
VELTMAN: The Paris resident says, in the meantime, he loves visiting that room on Tuesdays, when the Louvre is closed to the public. He can hang out with his favorite painting, Titian's "Man With A Glove," without all of the jostle and noise.
COMPAGNON: There's a sort of melancholy that translates in the representation of this young man.
VELTMAN: And, Compagnon adds, taking time with the canvas allows the eye to be drawn to details, like the glove's delicate beige color.
Chloe Veltman, NPR News.
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