French President Emmanuel Macron announced the move this week. Bertrand Guay / Pool / AFP via Getty ImagesLast spring, the worldsmost-visited art museum, the Louvre in Paris,proposed moving its most popular artworkLeonardo da VincisMona Lisato its own subterranean room. Now, that idea is becoming reality.As French President Emmanuel Macron announced this week, speaking in front of Leonardos iconic 16th-century portrait in the museumsSalle des tats gallery, the move comes amidst a large-scale expansion and renovation of the museum.The Louvre will be redesigned and restored to become the epicenter of art history for our country and beyond, Macron told reporters, per theNew York Times Aurelien Breeden. The renovations are intended to alleviate overcrowding at the museumwhich is flooded with almostnine million visitors each year.The museum will gain several new exhibition spaces, including one beneath its easternmost courtyard, theCour Carre. This room will host the Mona Lisa, and visitors will be able to purchase a special ticket to enter it. Currently, the portrait receives as many as 25,000 daily visitors, each getting less than a minute to view it. TheMona Lisais currently housed in the Louvre'sSalle des tats gallery. Stefan Wloch via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0Every day, this very room is the scene of intense agitation, Laurence des Cars, the Louvres director, said at the press conference, according to theWashington Posts Ellen Francis. Exceptional visitor numbers are not a curse, theyre a source of pride. Its also a challenge to reinvent ourselves and remain faithful to our public service mission.The announcement comes just a week after the publication of a leaked memo written by des Cars, in which she calls visiting the Louvre a physical ordeal.Accessing the artworks takes time and is not always easy, des Cars wrote, per theGuardians Ashifa Kassam. Visitors have no space to take a break. The food options and restroom facilities are insufficient in volume, falling below international standards. The signage needs to be completely redesigned.The renovation will also include the installation of a new entrance on the Louvres east side near the Seine River to spread out guests. Expected to be finished in 2031, the project could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, per the Washington Post. Macron said that it will be paid for by donations,license royalties and ticketing revenue. The Louvre was a defensive fortress then a royal residence before becoming a museum. Mika Volkmann / Getty ImagesBuilt in the late12th century under the French kingPhilip II, the Louvre began as a royal fortress. During the 16th century, Francis I demolished the old fortress andrebuilt it as a Renaissance-style palace. The building housed royalty until the 1600s, when Louis XIV built a new residence for monarchs, thePalace of Versailles. In the late 18th century, the old palace became a public art museumlater dubbed the Louvre.The palatial buildings last large renovation happened in the 1980s, per the Washington Post. It included the installation of architectI.M. Peis glasspyramid, which stands over the museums current entrance. At that time, the museum welcomed about four million visitors each year. The new eastern entrance will be designed by the winner of an international competition to be held this year.As Julien Lacaze, president of the French heritage protection associationSites & Monuments, tells the Times, the Louvre needs to direct the flow of visitors more effectively and improve the promotion of its massive collection. (The Louvre owns some 500,000 artworks, 30,000 of which are on display.)Its the biggest museum in the world, Lecaze adds, but tourists only come to see five works of art.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Arts, European History, European Travel, France, France Travel, History, Leonardo Da Vinci, Museums, Painters, Painting, Renovation and Restoration, Travel