A reason to smile... Mona Lisa is online

THE Louvre has put its entire 480,000piece collection online to allow art lovers to appreciate masterpieces such as the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa.

The Paris gallery, which normally attracts 10million visitors a year – and is famed for its long queues – has been shut since October 30 in a bid to contain the pandemic.

Its site, collections.louvre.fr, allows users to explore the museum’s eight departments – as well as artworks in storage not normally available to view. The site is in French, English, Spanish and Chinese.

President-director Jean-Luc Martinez said: ‘The Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known. For the first time, anyone can access the entire collection of works from a computer or smartphone for free. The Louvre’s stunning cultural heritage is just a click away.’

The Louvre is one of several world-famous museums to offer virtual tours during the Covid-19 pandemic. Others include the British Museum, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and New York’s Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum Of Art.