Photo by Michael Fousert on Unsplash
France’s President Macron has announced plans for a €800 revamp of Paris’ iconic Louvre museum, with some of the cost to be footed by higher ticket prices for non-EU visitors.
The ‘New Renaissance of the Louvre’ project at the world’s largest museum will feature a new private room for its most celebrated artefact, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The room will be accessible independently from the rest of the museum.
Other major proposals include the creation of a new grand entrance designed to rebalance visitor flows, which will be developed via an international architectural competition.
President Macron, in a speech at the Louvre, said the museum requires structural changes due to its popularity. Some nine million people visit the Louvre each year, which is double the number who visited when the last major rehabilitation took place in the 1980s.
President Macron said the project would cost up to €800m, with funds coming from the museum itself rather than the French taxpayer. Visitors from non-EU countries face higher ticket prices from January 2026, with entry currently €22. Private donations and the licence fee for the Louvre Abu Dhabi will also contribute.
“It is a redesigned, restored, enlarged Louvre, which is fully becoming the epicentre of the history of art for our country and beyond,” President Macron said in a speech at the Louvre.
“The Louvre Museum is a priority both in the preservation of its heritage and in the influence of France.”
Louvre overhaul completed by 2031
A competition to design the new entrance will commence this year, with the project to be completed by 2031. Other features would include the restoration of the Carrousel and Tuileries gardens. There will also be new underground spaces under the Cour Carrée, providing an east-west circulation axis.
President Macron’s announcement comes after several years of discussions over the requirements for renovation. It is reported that staff have described the Louvre as being in a “deplorable state of disrepair”. They claimed that the museum cannot cope with rising tourist flows, and that water leaks and temperature variation pose a danger to the artworks.
Ultimately, it is hoped that the museum can attract up to 12 million visitors per year, and double the number of students welcomed to almost one million.
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