First-time visitors to the Louvre are stunned when they enter Mona Lisa’s room. The world’s most famous painting is shockingly small. She is behind a glass cage. Dozens of Japanese tourists with extravagant cameras block your way. You are barely allowed 30 seconds before being shoved out of the room. Seeing the Mona Lisa is the most anti-climactic part of the Louvre visit.
Though she and her smile look young, Mona Lisa is more
than 500 years old. In August 1911, when life was simple and security slack, the
painting was stolen. Even Pablo Picasso was interrogated as a suspect (no, he hadn’t
stolen it). She was found in 1914 with an Italian employee of the Louvre, who thought
she deserved to be in her creator’s, Leonardo da Vinci’s land, and not in
France. Then in 1956, a Bolivian man threw a rock at her, slightly damaging her
left elbow. When she travelled to Tokyo in 1974, a woman threw red paint. In
2009, a Russian woman bought a ceramic teacup at the museum shop, and threw it on
the painting, shattering its glass.
Now Mona Lisa is behind bulletproof glass, visitors are
socially distanced even since before the pandemic. Inside the glass cage,
humidity is maintained at 50% and temperature at 18 C.
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A year ago, the Louvre was doing exceedingly well with
a blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of the
master. Louvre had to be shut between March and July, and after a brief
reopening with severe restrictions, closed again since October. It remains shut
until now. In 2020, it suffered a drop of 72%, from the 9.6 million visitors in
2019. The majority of Louvre visitors are from abroad. World War II was the
last time it was shut for so long.
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Earlier, any renovation work was carried out on Tuesdays,
the weekly off. As a result of the pandemic, the Louvre has seven Tuesdays a
week. Curators, restorers, conservators and other experts now work five days a
week to complete major renovations and beautifications. In the Sully Wing,
workers are sawing parquet for a giant new floor. In Louis XIV’s former
apartments, restorers wearing surgical masks climb scaffolding to tamp gold
leaf onto ornate moldings. Some work is simpler, like dusting the frames of
nearly 4500 paintings. Some is long-drawn like the makeover in the Egyptian
antiquities hall. The ambitious plan includes hanging 40,000 explanatory
plaques in English and French next to art works.
*****
Last month, Louvre in collaboration with Christie’s
arranged a novel auction to raise funds for charity. It auctioned not only tangible
items, but experiences as well. I will mention two.
You could buy at the auction a private concert in your
honour in the reception hall of the French kings. The Salle des Caryatides
has fine pieces from the Greek and Roman antiquities, including Diana of
Versailles, Sleeping Hermaphroditus and the Three Graces. As was done for the
French Monarchs, the musicians installed in the balcony will perform for you.
You and your loved one, while sipping a flute of champagne become French Royals
for an evening.
This experience was sold at the auction for Euro 42,000.
*****
Another experience was called the Mona Lisa mania.
Each year, the celebrated painting is taken out of her glass cage once. The
conservators inspect the condition of the thin poplar panel. The winner at the
auction is invited to be part of that singular moment. You will be able to look
straight into the eyes of the uncaged Mona Lisa, and be as close to her as no ordinary
visitor ever can. This magical experience comes along with a free private tour
of the Italian masterpieces in the Grande Galerie.
This experience was sold at the auction for Euro
80,000. The winning bidder and the Louvre management will agree to a date for the
tryst with Mona Lisa.
Ravi
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