Mona Lisa’s roommates may be glad she’s moving out

If the other paintings in the room that houses the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris could talk, they might be whispering “good riddance!” to one another right now.

That’s owing to French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on Tuesday that the world’s most famous painting is to be removed from the Salle des Etats, its longstanding home, and rehoused in its own space in the Louvre with a dedicated entrance.

“This particular space, accessible independently from the rest of the museum, will allow ‘The Mona Lisa’ conditions of exhibition, presentation and interpretation [it] deserves,” Macron said during the speech he gave standing in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s early 16th century masterpiece.

The move, which Macron said is scheduled to take place within the next few years and aims to mitigate the Louvre’s overcrowding problem, isn’t just great for the Mona Lisa.

It could also allow the dozens of other artworks in the Salle des Etats — including masterworks of the Venetian Renaissance by the likes of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese — to finally receive their due.

“ People have just been coming to check their ‘I paid a visit to the Mona Lisa‘ box,” said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a professor of French and philosophy at Columbia University who was appointed by the museum in 2024 to give a series of lectures about its art collection. “ And even if you go to that room with the intention of looking at the other paintings, you would be distracted by the Mona Lisa.‘”

The other major paintings in the space include  Titian’s Pastoral Concert, Tintoretto’s sketch for The Coronation of the Virgin (Paradise), and The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese.

 ”The Wedding at Cana is one of the treasures of the Louvre. It was brought back from Venice by Bonaparte after the Revolution,” said 2024 Louvre Writer in Residence Antoine Compagnon. Compagnon is a professor at the College de France and at Columbia University, and also a member of the Academie Francaise. “It’s a huge painting that people don’t look at because it’s on the wall that faces the Mona Lisa. They have their backs to it.”

Compagnon is also excited for visitors to be able to pay attention to his favorite painting in the room, Titian’s Man with a Glove.

“There’s a sort of melancholy that translates in the representation of this young man,” Compagnon said. “And the color of the glove, which is beige, attracts the eye of the viewer.”

Compagnon was present at the museum for Macron’s speech Tuesday. He said  he’s glad Mona Lisa is being given a dedicated space. “It will free the Salle des Etats,” he said. But he added it remains to be seen whether all of these other masterpieces will remain in the Salle des Etats indefinitely after da Vinci’s work is removed.