The Louvre wants to put the Mona Lisa in its own room to improve visitor experience. Here’s my suggestion: two rooms, 1 w/ the Mona Lisa (timed entry, no photos) and 1 w/ a fake (free-for-all, selfies, usies, etc.)
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Obviously you could have someone dressed as the Mona Lisa available for Selfies in the Selfie-Room. And the queue to the real room could be a winding themed documentary experience...perhaps that's a bit too Disney for Paris. They have more than enough Disney outside the city. :)
I can’t imagine the Louvre doing that but I already want a selfie with the Mona Lisa actor
MoMA could do the same with Starry Night.
The selfie to flex that you've seen the painting has overtaken actually looking at the painting.
Agreed! The last time I was at MOMA, I saw someone take a photo of Starry Night, then go sit at a bench nearby to look at their photo. Instead of looking at the actual painting! At least they moved out of the way of others' viewing, I guess.
They could just have a green screen rectangle on the wall in the second room. Add a bunch of touch screens to swap in the masterpiece of your choice into the pic. Collect visitors' email addresses or mobile numbers to send them the pic. Sell the email list to third parties. If we're going to sell out the experience, we might as well go whole hog.
Love it. And the real/fake should switch rooms on a random schedule so no one ever knows which one they took a photo with!
This is a brilliant idea.
The exhibit itself would be a sort of performance art piece about authenticity.
The problem with this is that it would be ideal to have looser security in the fake room so people could get closer to the painting than you're allowed to for the real one.
The fake could be many copies printed on vinyl stickers so when someone does a dumb TikTok stunt, you just peel off the copy they ruined
Or put them on a roll above, that feeds into the frame like a roll of toilet paper. Tear off as needed!
Meh, I prefer the one in the Prado anyways.
This reminds me of an Onion article...
Tip: I visited the Louvre a year ago and saw the Mona Lisa with no line/minimal crowd: the trick was to go shortly before closing on a Friday when they had extended evening hours.
I love the idea of no-selfies with the real painting but a selfies-encouraged environment for a fake.
Let’s take it to the next step and open up the “Lüv U” next door. It will be one of those Instagram factories where you can visit themed rooms, use AI to put yourself in the Mona Lisa, get your face painted, and buy croissants the size of your head.
I would call it a honeypot, but I think it might be more fun?
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