Lockdown aids Louvre as ‘this Sleeping Beauty’ gets ‘time to powder her nose’

A worker transports the painting called Portrait of Antonio de Covarrubias y Leiva by Spanish painter El Greco in the Louvre museum in Paris (Thibault Camus/AP)

The 518-year-old Mona Lisa has seen many things in her life on a wall, but rarely this – almost four months with no Louvre visitors.

As she stares out through bulletproof glass into the silent Salle des Etats, in what was once the world’s most-visited museum, her celebrated smile could almost denote relief.