The Louvre increased its virtual presence during the lockout.
Paris, France:
The Louvre in Paris, the most visited museum in the world and the house of the Mona Lisa, reopens on Monday but with coronavirus restrictions in place and parts of the complex closed to visitors.
The Louvre has been closed since March 13 and this has already resulted in “losses of more than 40 million euros,” said its director Jean-Luc Martinez.
Among more than 10 million visitors in 2018, almost three quarters were tourists.
“We lost 80% of our audience. Seventy-five percent of our visitors were foreigners,” said Martinez.
“We will see at best 20 to 30% of our figures recorded last summer – between 4,000 and 10,000 visitors per day maximum,” he said.
Visitors will have to wear masks, there will be no snacks or changing rooms available and the public will have to follow a guided path through the museum.
Positions have been marked in front of the Mona Lisa – where tourists regularly pose for selfies – to ensure social distancing.
France contributes 100 million euros (112 million dollars) to the Louvre’s 250 million euros annual budget and the museum must compensate the rest, according to experts.
Seventy percent of the museum’s public spaces – 45,000 square meters (approximately 485,000 square feet) – will be open to the public.
After the success of its Leonardo blockbuster exhibition, which closed at the start of the year, the Louvre has announced that its two exhibitions planned for the spring and then postponed will now take place in the fall.
This is the Italian sculpture from Donatello to Michelangelo and the German Renaissance master Albrecht Altdorfer.
The Louvre increased its virtual presence during the lockdown and said it was now the most followed museum in the world on Instagram with more than four million followers.
Martinez plans to redesign the museum before 2024, when Paris will host the Olympic Games.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
