£30m cost of Mona Lisa tour persuades Louvre to call it off

A PLAN to take the Mona Lisa on a “grand tour” of France has been reportedly dropped after the Louvre estimated it would cost it up to £30 million to loan out its crown jewel for just three months.

Earlier this month, Françoise Nyssen, the culture minister, said she was “seriously considering” sending the

Mona Lisa to Lens, a former mining town in northern France where the Louvre has an outpost.

But the museum called a halt to the plan by factoring in transport costs and lost revenue from disappointed tourists, 90 per cent of whom say their prime reason for visiting the Louvre is to see Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece.

According to Le Parisien, it would cost €8-10million to insure the painting, for protective glass, wrapping and transport.

But the highest costs would be the estimated €13million in lost revenues from cancelled bookings for the Louvre plus the €7.5 million spent on bookstores, shops and restaurants; the overall figure came to €30-35 million.