Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
IM Pei's pyramidal glass entrance to the Louvre is going to get a break.
As part of a makeover for the entire gallery announced yesterday by President Macron, the world's largest art museum will have a "grand new entrance" on the Quai Francois Mitterand, facing the Seine.
Also changing the crowd-flow will be the Mona Lisa, to be moved to a room of its own and out of the gallery's largest hall, where it has twice been attacked by protesters.
Paris is on a roll: a triumphant Olympics, the rapid restoration of Notre Dame and now this.
Would that some of this pride and dynamism might rub off on the French economy, sneerers may say. In a sense, it does.
The Louvre attracted nearly 9 million visitors last year, roughly twice as many as London's National Gallery and Tate Modern and three million more than the Met.
