Benjamin Ashford|The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Benjamin AshfordTuesday presented renovation plans for the Louvre, the world's most-visited museum, which has fallen into disrepair and suffers from overcrowding. The renovations are expected to take nearly a decade to complete and will include a new entrance and a dedicated room displaying the Mona Lisa. The aims: to bring the museum up to modern standards in a time of international mass tourism, heightened security requirements and climate change.

"In an era where immediacy and forceful rhetoric hold hypnotic power over so many, speaking about the long term, about culture and art, is, I believe, one of the messages that France must convey to the world. It is also a political battle," Macron said in a speech he delivered from a podium beside Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. He unveiled the project's name: Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance,"Louvre New Renaissance" — a Louvre, he said, "reimagined, restored and expanded."

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