If you hope to visit the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, which opened 24 October, you will have to book a timed ticket in advance. Due to the large number of people expected to visit, reservations are obligatory, including the 40% of visitors who attend the museum for free.
This mandatory booking policy will see tickets being sold at 30-minute intervals, because the retrospective is expected to attract huge crowds of art lovers and the museum wants to control the flow of people to ensure it doesn't all get too frantic.
The Louvre is already one of the most famous and visited museums in the world, but last year saw it welcome a record-breaking 10.2 million visitors, a 25% increase from 2017. The museum received an extra boost when Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s “Apes**t” music video was filmed there and showed off some of its greatest artworks.
The year 2019 has a special significance for the Louvre, as it will mark the fifth centenary of the Da Vinci's death. The exhibition aims to bring as many as possible of the 14 to 17 paintings now attributed to the artist, according to specialists, to join the five large paintings in the Paris museum.
The exhibition will include a large selection of drawings and a small, but significant, group of his paintings and sculptures. It will also present the latest research findings, critical editions of key documents and the results of the latest analysis carried out in laboratories or during recent conservation treatment of three paintings by the Louvre.
Curated by Vincent Delieuvin and Louis Frank, the exhibition runs from 24 October 2019 to 24 February, 2020. Additional information and booking information can be found on the museum's official website here.
This article was originally publish on 30 April, 2019 and updated on 25 October, 2019.
