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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Jonathan Jones

Louvre’s decision to move Mona Lisa is a misguided act of snobbery

Over-the shoulder shot of someone with a smartphone taking a picture of the painting
A visitor takes a photograph of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris on the day of Emmanuel Macron’s announcement. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

What a wonderful headache for a museum to have. The Louvre in Paris gets so many visitors it is taking drastic measures to cope, which include moving its most famous treasure to a dedicated space where fans can visit without entering the main museum at all. It will no longer suck the oxygen from other art.

Nearly 9 million visitors a year stream through the Louvre and it’s believed 80% of them are looking for Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, better known as La Gioconda, better still as the Mona Lisa.

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