Louvre chooses architects for new Mona Lisa suite and plans expansion of visitors
The Louvre Museum in Paris has announced the selection of an international team of architects for an ambitious renovation and expansion project. The work, which could reach US$1 billion, aims to resolve issues of crowd control, security and infrastructure at the most visited art museum in the world, allowing the flow of visitors to increase by three million annually and offering a new way of seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece.
New York-based firm Selldorf Architects will join forces with Studios Architecture Paris to lead the renovation. The choice was made by the French Ministry of Culture, which selected the team from among five finalists, after a process that involved more than one hundred applications since October.
According to Catherine Pégard, France’s culture minister, the winning design is “respectful and contemporary”, creating an “elegant connection between the city, the palace and the museum”. The statement was made when presenting the proposal.
The central focus of the project is the remodeling of the square into the Great Colonnade, the east facade of the museum, built in the 17th century following the classical tradition with imposing paired columns.
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Pégard highlighted the proposed symmetry of this façade, which will include two new underground entrances, as well as expanded exhibition spaces, food areas and gift shops. New paths and green areas connecting the museum to the rest of the French capital seek to alleviate the problem of the large movement of people, currently around nine million visitors per year.
Additionally, the team of architects will be responsible for redesigning the display of the Louvre’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. The work, which alone attracts approximately 20,000 people per day, will have an exclusive exhibition room measuring around 3,065 square meters. This new space will allow visitors to see the painting without having to walk through the rest of the museum, a change that officials hope will further reduce overcrowding.
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Currently, the Mona Lisa gallery is usually extremely crowded, generating great excitement in the place.
Laurence des Cars, the museum’s former director, said at a press conference last year that “the exceptional number of visitors is not a curse, it is a source of pride. It is also a challenge to reinvent ourselves and remain true to our mission of public service.”
Discover the museums with the highest number of global visitors
In 2025, the museums that received the highest number of visitors were:
- The Louvre in Paris
- The Vatican Museums in Vatican City
- The National Museum of Korea in Seoul
- The British Museum in London
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
The Mona Lisa expansion is expected to be completed in 2031, at an estimated cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced the Louvre projects in January 2025, responded to criticism over the high cost by emphasizing that the museum’s renovation is a matter of national importance and cultural pride. The museum has recently faced challenges such as the theft of the French crown jewels in October, which exposed security deficiencies, and water leaks that damaged hundreds of works of art in December and February.
In Paris, there is a recent example of restoration of important cultural institutions. Macron cited the renovation of Notre-Dame Cathedral following the devastating fire in 2019 as an inspiration for the Louvre initiative.
During a speech in January 2025, in front of the Mona Lisa, Macron stated: “Notre-Dame was a catalyst for our architecture and arts and crafts. This new Renaissance project for the Louvre should be for the history of art and its transmission, a new stage in the life of the nation.”
