By Ljiljana Maletin Vojvodić //

In the heart of Paris, overlooking the Seine, stands the Louvre — not only the world’s largest art museum, but also the most visited. In 2023 alone, it welcomed over 8 million people. Once a medieval fortress and later a royal palace, it now houses some of humanity’s most iconic artworks, above all, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

At the center of attention, surrounded by thick crowds and bulletproof glass, the Mona Lisa (or La Gioconda) remains the most famous portrait in art history. Leonardo is believed to have painted her in the early 1500s, using the wife of a Florentine merchant as his model. Despite her modest dimensions, she easily outshines Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana — a monumental painting hanging on the opposite wall, which most visitors barely notice as they rush to photograph her smile.

Other masterpieces in the Louvre include The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault, Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix — featuring a bare-breasted woman waving the French flag in the 1830 revolution — and The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, where the emperor famously crowns himself. During his reign, Napoleon significantly expanded the museum’s collection, even renaming it the Musée Napoléon. It’s said that Mona Lisa was one of his favorite paintings, which he kept in his private bedroom — a detail often left out of guidebooks.

The museum also guards treasures from ancient civilizations: the armless beauty Venus de Milo, the dramatic Winged Victory of Samothrace, Michelangelo’s Dying Slave, and the Code of Hammurabi — one of the earliest written legal codes in history, from Mesopotamia.

But the Louvre is not just a hall of fame for famous works.

Divided into eight departments, it’s a vast cultural maze where you can trace the artistic paths of Egypt, Persia, the Islamic world, Renaissance Italy, French classicism, Flemish masters, and dozens of other styles and traditions. Beneath the surface, visitors can even explore the stone remains of the original medieval fortress. At the entrance, the iconic glass pyramid by architect I. M. Pei — completed in 1989 — symbolizes the museum’s ongoing dialogue between past and present.

And yet, the Louvre has changed with the times.

In the age of mass tourism, digital replicas, and social media, visitors don’t just come to see art — they come to be seen with it. Crowds push toward Mona Lisa not for quiet contemplation, but for the perfect selfie. Artworks become backdrops for content; masterpieces, proof of having been there.

Lady Gaga filmed a music video inside the Louvre in 2024. Before her, it was Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Somewhere between the gift shop and the Instagram story, art — paradoxically — has become secondary to its spectacle. The Louvre, once a temple of quiet observation, is now a global stage where fame feeds fame. The Mona Lisa is no longer just a painting — she’s a brand, a meme, a must-see moment.