The president and director of the Louvre Museum, Laurence Des Cars, spoke in a confidential note to the Minister of Culture about a new presentation of the Mona Lisa. Its current location linked to its global popularity is disappointing.
A victim of its global success, the Mona Lisa causes traffic jams in the Salle des Estates of the Louvre and often disappoints visitors who are unable to enjoy Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting.
In a confidential note dated January 13 addressed to Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, revealed by The Parisian and which AFP was able to consult, Laurence Des Cars, president and director of the largest museum in the world, questions its location.
“Elevated to the status of an icon, Monna Lisa exerts a fascination which has not diminished over the decades. As a result of this popular fervor, the public flocks in large numbers to the Salle des Estates without being given the keys to understanding of the work and the artist; thereby questioning the public service mission of the museum”, writes the one who was appointed in 2021 at the head of the Louvre.
A consistency to be found
For Laure Fagnart, research professor at the FNRS (University of Liège) and Da Vinci specialist, it would be interesting to feature Monna Lisa alongside other works by the Italian genius. “Experts can argue that the Grande Galerie would be more interesting to bring the Mona Lisa into dialogue with other paintings, to be able to compare them at a glance since today, it is isolated,” she explains to BFMTV.com .
Having come to visit the museum recently with students, the academic was disappointed with the experience. “It’s hellish, we really have a hard time enjoying the moment because we’re so rushed. The visitors don’t really look. It’s difficult to get close, nor to stay very long. These are not ideal conditions”, she continues.
Laure Fagnart, however, recognizes the practical aspect of the current location. “If we want to move it, we have to rethink everything. The Hall of States has the advantage of being very large to be able to accommodate a larger number of people.”
-A table that has already been moved
If the Mona Lisa were to be moved, it would not be a first, recalls Laure Fagnart, while the painting painted at the beginning of the 16th century has not always been exhibited in the Louvre.
“We can follow the journey of the painting through various castles, it remained at Versailles for a long time before entering the Louvre. It was kept in the Salon Carré, a restricted space where masterpieces were kept. fame already justified its place in a reserved place Then it navigated between the Grand Gallery and the Salle des Estates”, she summarizes.
In 2019, the painting was temporarily moved for the first time in around fifteen years in order to repaint the room before the opening of the last major exhibition around the works of the Tuscan genius.
Aside from the question of the Mona Lisa, the president of the Louvre Laurence des Cars also alerted, in her note to Rachida Dati, to the dilapidation of the Parisian museum, hoping to obtain adequate financial support.
The director deplores, among other things, “the multiplication of damages in sometimes very degraded spaces”, “the obsolescence (of) technical equipment”, as well as “worrying temperature variations endangering the state of conservation of the works” .
