Unless they've changed things for the worse, this is nonsense. I visited the Louvre about five years ago and found: * The ML (Mona Lisa) is put in its own room

Unless they've changed things for the worse, this is nonsense. I visited the Louvre about five years ago and found: * The ML (Mona Lisa) is put in its own room, surrounded by a bunch of not very remarkable paintings that would not lose out to being ignored by tourists focusing on the Mona Lisa. * You can get to the ML fairly efficiently from the main entrance. If that is all you want to see, it's not a very big problem because: * The Louvre is VAST. 99.99% of it is not the ML and probably around 90% of it does not suffer from being in the same very, very large building as the ML. You can have a very fulfilling visit to the Louvre and never get anywhere near the thing (or the queues leading up to it). Also, the common trope that the ML is not actually an interesting painting is nonsense as well. It's a perfectly charming little painting and if you make sure you enter the museum early enough you can get close enough to enjoy it. My 2 cents. That hinge on the Louvre not having significantly changed things for the worse recently.