Paris: Louvre auctions personal time with Mona Lisa to recover economic loss

France’s iconic Louvre Museum is now using its most popular artwork to recover financial losses incurred during a pandemic. The historic museum, located in the heart of Paris, has put up personal time with Mona Lisa up for auction. As per the museum, the person who wins the bid would get an opportunity to get close the Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece by witnessing the annual examination of the painting.

As per the regular rules, any visitor who wants to see the ‘Portrait 1503’ has to see it from the crowd and from a distance of three meters. However, once every year, the Mona Lisa painting, locally known as La Gioconda, is taken down from a wall for a fleeting check on a crack that threatens the artwork. It is during this examination, that the lucky winner of the auction would be allowed to get close to the painting.

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According to Sky News, officials at the museum are now hoping to raise as much as 10,000 to 30,000 euros from the Mona Lisa experience.  The Louvre, one of the main attractions in the French capital has been closed for more than five months now and has suffered major economic loss. While the museum was visited by over 10 million people in 2019, this year it is expected to lose about 900 million euros in revenue. With, the museum is looking to re-open on December 16, officials are now looking to pull the museum out of loses with the bid.

COVID-19 in France

Meanwhile, the caseload of COVID-19 cases in France has surpassed 2.3 million while over 55 thousand people have died. this comes as the European Court of Human Rights has dismissed a legal complaint from a French citizen who claimed the anti-COVID 19 measures put in place by the French government were insufficient. However, the government admitted the mis-steps taken. 

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