Louvre's €1 Billion Renovation to Be Financed Three-Quarters by Ticket Sales
Three quarters of the renovation work planned under the Louvre's vast "New Renaissance" overhaul will be financed by the museum's own ticket sales, its president and director Christophe Leribault said on France Inter on Friday, October 16. The renovation plan, announced in 2025 by President Emmanuel Macron, is estimated at one billion euros and provides for work on the building, a new entrance and a new room dedicated to the Mona Lisa.
Leribault said the United Arab Emirates will contribute 300 million euros to the project, while 360 million euros remain to be found from patrons. "It's huge — in France we've never had a challenge of this level," he said, adding: "This is necessary work if we want the Louvre to remain the most beautiful and largest museum in the world."
The new Mona Lisa room will be located under the Cour Carrée. Leribault noted that the current gallery is too often stormed by visitors, many of whom have never visited a museum before. His remarks came a year after the spectacular theft in the Apollo Gallery, which put the museum's security and ageing infrastructure under sustained scrutiny. (GSM, based on France Inter and French media reports)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 巴黎卢浮宫拿破仑庭院夜景。 Photo by Benh LIEU SONG, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5.
