The Louvre goes into restoration and cleanup as France lockdown continues
By John Legaspi
Looks like visitors of the museum will be in for a visual treat once they open
The Mona Lisa may be alone for the longest time, but she sure is keeping that smile as she goes to the spa together with the other works of art housed by the Louvre in France.
As establishments’ doors are still closed with the declaration of lockdown in France, the Louvre is making the most out of its visitors absence with restorations and cleanup activities in preparation for the day when it once again welcomes art enthusiasts from all over the globe in its halls.
A group of 250 staff, ranging from curators, restorers, conservators, and other art experts are working five days a week in refurbishing and beautifying the museum.
In pre-pandemic time, Louvre staff would dedicate their Tuesdays working on the museum’s maintenance. Now, with more time in their hands, projects that usually take five weeks are done in just days.
“COVID has been a force majeure. At the moment we have so many question marks—it’s hard to know what the situation will be in two, three or four months,” Sébastien Allard, the general curator and director of the Louvre's painting department tells The New York Times. “But despite COVID, we continue to work as always. We must be ready to welcome back the public.”
In 2019, the Louvre set a record for being the most visited museum in the world, welcoming 9.6 million visitors that year. Its number dropped to 2.7 million last year due to its closure in light of health and safety concerns in France.
Apart from Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpieces, the Louvre is also the home of over 50,000 Egyptian antiquities, sculptures such as the Nike of Samothrace and Venus the Milo, and famous paintings including The Raft of the Medusa and The Coronation of Napoleon.
Check out some of the Louvre's online tours here.