VR Mona Lisa Experience to Open at the Louvre

If you are lucky enough to visit the Louvre in Paris, you will most likely get to see the Mona Lisa. Unfortunately, the experience might be a bit of a letdown. The museum could get crowded as about 20,000 people view da Vinci’s famous painting each day. If you happen to make it pass the photo-snapping tourists, the artwork is behind bulletproof glass. So you aren’t really getting to see the painting in its full glory. That is until now. The Louvre will be showing the Mona Lisa like never before thanks to virtual reality.

It’s called Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass and is a result of the museum’s partnership with HTC Vive Arts and French VR company Emissive. They promise that visitors will be able to step behind the protective glass and go deep inside the painting.

Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass Will Let Users See Hidden Details

Putting on a VR headset, visitors will be able to interact with the Mona Lisa as it floats in virtual space. They’ll get an intimate look at da Vinci’s techniques and see many details that are hidden from the naked eye. Incorporating new scientific research, Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass gives new information about the painting and the mysterious woman the artist painted over 500 years ago.

The experience was organized by the Louvre’s Vincent Delieuvin and Louis Frank. Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass is the Louvre’s first ever VR experience and is on display in the museum’s exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci, which commemorates the 500th anniversary of da Vinci’s death in France.

Mona Lisa Virtual Reality Experience Will Also Be Available Through Viveport

The exhibit will open October 24 of this year and run to February 24, 2020. You can buy tickets now, but reservations will be required to access the exhibit.

If you can’t make it to Paris, you’ll also be able to experience the Mona Lisa VR exhibit at home thanks to HTC’s VR subscription service Viveport. It will be an extended version, which will transport viewers from their homes into the Louvre, entering the museum through its famous Pyramid before traveling through the Grand Gallery. Along with the Mona Lisa, the experience will also let users explore additional works by da Vinci.

Check out our article on Rembrandt in augmented reality and the world’s first VR gym.