The French president said the project would be paid for by the museum’s own resources and private donors, not taxpayer money.

The Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece that visitors crowd in to see will get a dedicated room as the Paris museum is renovated and expanded in a major overhaul that will take years, the French president announced Tuesday.

A multi-year overhaul will see a new entrance built as well as a separate underground gallery for Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece in what Mr Macron called a "new renaissance".