In 1516, she was lugged out of Italy on the back of a mule by Leonardo da Vinci and ended up in France, where she became royal property. She lived for a time at the Palace of Versailles, then moved permanently to the Louvre Museum. That stay was interrupted in 1911, when a thief snatched her off the walls and kept her for two years in his Paris apartment before he was caught trying to sell her in Florence, Italy.
Now, the Mona Lisa is on the move again. And while it’s only a temporary relocation — from one wing of the Louvre to another — it’s causing commotion here.
The Salle des États, where the painting has hung since 2005, is being renovated. So, since July 17 the portrait has been installed in another gallery.
The difference is that there’s only one way in — up three escalators and through a single doorway — and 30,000 visitors a day to accommodate. The museum has spread the word that it is “exceptionally busy,” and that only prebooked tickets guarantee entry.
The phenomenon now known as overtourism is frustrating everybody: visitors, host institutions and host countries, said Marina Novelli, a professor of tourism at the University of Brighton in England. “We live in a world that is overcrowded, and travel is equally overcrowded.”
The Louvre is starting to introduce stiffer traffic-control measures. Last week, the museum’s deputy managing director, Vincent Pomarède, announced that from October or November, all visitors will need to reserve a timed slot for their visit. The measure was originally planned for early next year.
Novelli said she would be more radical still in protecting the world’s top sites. If “the way to deal with it is closing access to a particular attraction,” she said, “so be it.”
Try telling that to Alia Al Jabr. The 19-year-old engineering student from Kuwait looked dazzled by her first encounter with the Mona Lisa. “We love art, we love seeing art!” she said, as her younger sister and brother nodded approvingly. But what about the rushed conditions? “I don’t mind, because I took a beautiful picture. I actually took a video,” she said.
What if she didn’t get a photo? “I would be sad,” she said. “It’s like a memory. We have to take a picture to remember our first time here.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.