The hall in which the world-famous Mona Lisa hangs is reminiscent of the check-in lines at airports during the high season with its zigzag barriers. Orange dots on the floor indicate the distance that visitors have to keep inside. The safety precaution is one of the numerous measures with which the Louvre will open again in corona times from July 6th.
As the most visited museum in the world, the upcoming reopening is a major challenge, said Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez. Last year around 9.6 million people crowded through the huge art palace.
The Louvre will no longer be able to admit its treasures to more than 30 percent of its usual number of visitors. “Among other things, the halls of 19th century French painting, the departments of Islamic art and Italian sculptures will be reopened,” said the Louvre boss. And of course access to its stars: the marble beauty of the statue of Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.
A fraction of the usual visitors
Instead of 30,000 to 40,000 people a day, only a fraction of them will be allowed to visit the museum. It is still questionable whether so many will come. Because the majority of the audience comes to 75 percent from abroad. The Americans come first, followed by the Chinese. Europeans take third place, followed by Koreans and Brazilians. Only two million came from France, Martinez finished his list. He hoped for 3,000 to 4,000 visitors, at best 5,000 in the summer, he said. With covid warnings about unnecessary tourist trips, there is actually a big question mark behind the wish.
The Louvre is self-financing to over 50 percent, mainly through the sale of tickets. The rest is covered by public subsidies. Due to the weeks of closure, Martinez puts the loss at 40 million euros. The head of the museum is lucky that the state is the main patron.
Prescribed course
The Louvre opens 70 percent of its exhibition space and again makes over 35,000 of its works accessible under the mandatory corona rules such as wearing a nose and mouth protection. The tour of the halls follows a prescribed course, which is to avoid that those interested in art cross.
There is no long queue at the entrance, no crowds in the halls of 19th century French painting and mass crowds in front of the Mona Lisa: pictures that will at first belong to the past. According to estimates by the Louvre, around 90 percent of visitors come to the Paris World Museum to see the portrait of women painted by Leonardo around 1503.
In 2018, more than 9 million people flocked to the Mona Lisa because the Louvre had a record year with around 10.2 million. In Corona times, the visit to the painting, which is protected behind a giant bulletproof glass, is now increasingly regulated by long zigzag barriers and orange-colored distance points. The impressive device extends to the “Wedding at Cana” by Paolo Veronese, one of the largest pictures ever painted on canvas.
“La Jaconde”, as the picture of women from the heyday of the Italian Renaissance is called in French, is one of the most visited and at the same time scarcely considered works of art in the world. According to the Louvre, visitors stop an average of 50 seconds before the woman with the mysterious smile. However, this could change in times of Corona. (dpa)
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