The French government announced Monday morning the team of architects who have been selected to overhaul the Louvre in Paris, concluding a protracted selection process marked by staff strikes and the lingering investigation into the jewel heist.
The Paris office of STUDIOS Architecture will lead the project, which includes the creation of new galleries and a new lobby. The firm, an international collective founded in 1985 with offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Washington, D.C., has previously worked on a number of high-profile designs in the arts and culture sector: its recent portfolio includes the well-received renovations of the Frick Collection in New York and the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London.
The competition for the Louvre redesign was announced in early 2025 by French President Emmanuel Macron alongside Laurence des Cars, the museum’s then leader who resigned this past February. A shortlist of five architecture firms was unveiled in October, selected from a pool of more than 100 entrants vying to shape the $778 million renovation plan, which Macron has dubbed the “New Louvre Renaissance.” The competition, however, stalled amid an unprecedented period of internal turmoil at the museum following the theft last fall of more than $100 million in French crown jewels in under eight minutes.
The incident subjected museum leadership to intense scrutiny over the security lapse, which independent investigations have framed as symptomatic of broader systemic infrastructure failures. Last week, a French government commission released a report accusing the Louvre of prioritizing “prestige and influence” over security, citing testimony from more than 100 industry professionals and local officials who had warned of security gaps prior to the theft. Des Cars, the first female president of the Louvre, resigned in the fallout; she was succeeded by Christophe Leribault.
The renovation scheme aims to ease overcrowding at the Louvre, which welcomes some 9 million visitors annually. To that end, the architects will create a second public entrance and construct a new 33,000-square-foot exhibition space for the Mona Lisa, allowing visitors to access the famed artwork without traversing the rest of the museum.
The project will also include “highlighting the historic entrance to the Louvre—one of the masterpieces of French classical architecture, the Colonnade, and its esplanade in a new and vegetated composition,” according to a statement by the museum.
It was revealed in January that the museum’s 2026 budget earmarked $116 million for preliminary studies tied to the renovation and $17.5 million for technical maintenance, including $2.1 million dedicated to the safety of its artworks.
Overcrowding at the Louvre has become a flashpoint for internal protest. Earlier this year, roughly 350 Louvre staffers representing three unions staged a walkout, arguing that the institution should prioritize long-overdue technical upgrades and building maintenance over plans to relocate the Mona Lisa to a standalone gallery.
According to the Louvre, the planned gallery will allow “the public to discover and contemplate it in satisfactory conditions.”
