French president Emmanuel Macron unveiled the plans on Tuesday (Image: Getty)
Brits and other non-EU tourists visiting the Louvre in will be hit with a higher entry fee to help fund a room in the museum dedicated to the famous Mona Lisa painting as well as a new entrance.
French President unveiled the new levy for non-EU citizens on Tuesday, following reports of the museum’s . The increased fee will raise money for the attraction, which staff have labelled as being in a “deplorable state of disrepair.”
Mr Macron insisted the major refurbishment would not cost French taxpayers “a single centime” as he announced the plan in front of the Mona Lisa.
The Louvre received 8.7 million visitors last year (Image: Getty)
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The overhaul is expected to cost €700 million to €800 million (£587 million to £671 million), which the Elysée has said will come from the Louvre’s “own resources”. A mixture of private donations, increased entry fee for visitors from non-EU countries and the licence fee will fund the renovation.
The current entry stands at €22 (£18.45), yet the new price for Brits will come into effect on January 1, 2026.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa will be moved to a “special area” of the Louvre, “accessible independently from the rest of the museum and for this reason endowed with its own access pass”.
The “grand entrance” will be opened at the building’s eastern side, opposite the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois de Paris church. The president is aiming for the work to be completed by 2031.
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Spain seeks to set 100% Tax on Non-EU citizens buying houses (Image: Getty)
The new charge comes as another blow for UK citizens after Spain revealed plans to tax more Brits and non-EU nationals who wish to buy a second home in the country. Earlier this month, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced “unprecedented” .
The move follows the worsening housing crisis in the country, which sparked a wave of anti-tourism protests across Spain.
In a speech said: “For non-resident non-EU nationals the tax burden will be up to 100 percent of the property’s value.
“In 2023 alone non-residents from outside the EU purchased 27,000 houses and flats, not to live in them because mainly they bought them to speculate, to earn money with them, which is something that in the context of the problems many people are experiencing is something we can’t permit.”