Architects are being asked to submit proposals for a new entrance for the world’s most visited museum — and to create a new exhibition space for the Mona Lisa.
France on Friday started an architectural competition for the daunting task of expanding the Louvre in Paris, in a bid to ease overcrowding at the world’s biggest and most visited museum.
The project, which will create a new entrance and give the Mona Lisa a new exhibition space, was first announced in January by President Emmanuel Macron. He set the ambitious target of welcoming 12 million visitors per year — three million more than today — while also solving crowd-management headaches at the museum.
The architectural competition will be decided by a 21-person international jury, which will choose five finalists in October. A winner will be announced in early 2026, according to the Louvre.
Part of the brief is to design a new gallery for the Mona Lisa, the 16th-century masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci that attracts droves of visitors. The museum’s management said on Friday that the new exhibition space would be about 33,000 square feet and should also include room to explain the painting’s history, its famous 1911 theft, and its modern-day iconic status.
“Our aim is to offer a high-quality encounter with this masterpiece,” Laurence des Cars, the Louvre’s president, said in an interview with Le Monde published on Friday, arguing that the space needed to offer “a genuine time for contemplation.”
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