New 'Mona Lisa' exhibit opens in Paris

PARIS, April 6 (UPI) -- Leonardo da Vinci's famed "Mona Lisa" was unveiled in a new, specially designed gallery at the Louvre in Paris Wednesday.

The fragile portrait painted in Florence between 1502 and 1506 had been on display in a far-off corner of the museum for the last four years, but now is in the Salle des Etats, a large rectangular gallery in the museum's Denon wing overlooking the Seine, the New York Times reported.

Nippon Television of Japan paid $6.2 million to renovate the gallery. The network also committed $2.2 million to upgrade the Louvre gallery displaying the "Venus de Milo."

The 30.3-by-21.7 inch "Mona Lisa" now hangs opposite Veronese's enormous "Marriage at Cana" -- 32.6-by-22.2 feet -- and is accompanied by 52 works from the Venetian Renaissance, including paintings by Titian, Bassano, Tintoretto and Lotto and others by Veronese.

The painting is in a sealed enclosure behind 1.52-inch-thick glass kept at a permanent temperature of 43 degrees and 50 percent humidity.