France’s Culture Ministry announced on Monday the architects and landscape designers chosen for the Louvre Museum’s planned €700-800 million revamp in Paris.
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Studios Architecture Paris, Selldorf Architects and Base Landscape Architecture were selected by a 21-member jury from a shortlist of five candidates for the “Louvre – New Renaissance” project.
The team will create a new space for Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and design a new museum entrance.
The Culture Ministry said the winning proposal was chosen for the quality of its architectural approach and the way it integrated heritage and security into the project.
A Louvre spokesperson added: “The proposal establishes an elegant link between the city, the palace, and the museum.”
Macron project
The museum overhaul is the brainchild of President Emmanuel Macron, who announced the competition for the modernisation alongside the Louvre’s then director Laurence des Cars in January 2025.
Under the plan, the Mona Lisa – which attracts around 20,000 visitors a day – will have its own separate space, accessible independently from the rest of the museum with a separate ticket.
The museum will also gain a new entrance on its eastern facade to ease congestion at the glass pyramid entrance.
Macron said the works, expected to cost between €700 million and €800 million, would be financed entirely through the museum’s own resources.
Security concerns
The announcement came four days after a report to French MPs said security concerns at the museum had repeatedly been pushed aside in favour of prestige projects and rising visitor numbers.
The report by MP Alexis Corbière followed a parliamentary inquiry launched after a burglary at the Louvre in October in which gems worth an estimated €88 million were stolen.
The theft exposed security weaknesses at the museum, which attracts around 9 million visitors a year.
The inquiry committee, chaired by MP Alexandre Portier, held around 20 hearings and round-table discussions, interviewed more than 100 people and carried out visits in France and abroad before finalising its conclusions.
Royal history
The Louvre was originally built by King Philip Augustus in 1190 to guard the lower reaches of the River Seine. Charles V later turned it into a royal residence in the late 14th century.
François I began transforming the fortress into a palace in 1546, with later work continuing under Henri II and Henri IV.
Louis XIV abandoned the Louvre for the Palace of Versailles in the late 1600s.
Studios Architecture Paris, the French branch of an international company, will now add to the museum’s history in a project expected to take around five years to complete.
The firm contributed to the design of the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and the LUMA Foundation in Arles in southern France.
Selldorf Architects, founded nearly 40 years ago by Annabelle Selldorf in New York, is known for redesigning gallery and museum spaces.
The studio led the transformation of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in London and also redesigned the mansion housing The Frick Collection in New York.
(with newswires)
