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Mona Lisa to get a room of her own

By Matthew Green

PARIS: Nov 17 (Reuters) - The Mona Lisa will move from a crowded gallery to a room of her own in Paris's Louvre within three years, the museum said on Wednesday.

The museum wants to allow a more lingering look to the hordes of visitors who jostle for a glimpse of the painting, which now hangs alongside other 16th-century Venetian works, said Louvre director Pierre Rosenberg.

"There will always be too many people looking at the Mona Lisa," he told reporters at a briefing in the gallery, famed for its modern glass pyramid entrance.

The existing Venetian gallery will be divided in two and a smaller room will be set aside for Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. "There will be daylight coming from both sides," Rosenberg said.

But the painting will retain its bulletproof glass shield.

"Everyone dreams of having the picture to themselves, without any glass, without any security. On the other hand we have to protect the picture," he said.

The Mona Lisa has developed a brown tinge from 500 years of grime and chemical changes in the varnish covering its surface, and some experts believe restoration would lighten the enigmatic woman's complexion.

But Rosenberg said the risks of damaging the painting were too great for the time being: "If you do things too early you cannot turn back."

Japan's NTV television agreed to provide about 25 million francs ($4 million) in March last year for the Mona Lisa's new room. "The Louvre has high prestige in Japan, far bigger than in any other place in the world," Rosenberg said.-Reuters