Louvre's Iconic Glass Pyramid Due For Redesign

"When the late François Mitterrand commissioned an enormous glass pyramid in the heart of the Louvre in 1989, critics slammed the new entrance as a ghoulish eyesore and the Socialist president as a would-be pharaoh 'wanting to breathe the scent of immortality'. An unrepentant Mitterrand called it one of the proudest achievements of his 14-year rule.

Seventeen years on, the pyramid is again causing aggravation. Its underground atrium can no longer cope with a record 7.5m visitors a year and the museum has been forced to recall its American architect, Ieoh Ming Pei, for a drastic rethink.

The pyramid is a victim of its own success, and of the Louvre's. Initially designed to welcome some 4m visitors a year, it was built as part of the so-called 'Grand Louvre' project that doubled exhibition space by opening the northern wing of the former royal palace and created an underground shopping centre.

Surveys show the pyramid itself is the third most popular work in the Louvre â€" behind the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo statue â€" far ahead of the museum’s 300,000 other works of art spanning 9,000 years of civilisation and including 52 works by Rubens and 12 Rembrandts."