Faculty in the News: Souleymane Bachir Diagne in NPR on Moving the Mona Lisa

Former director of the Institute of African Studies and Professor of French and Romance Philology Souleymane Bachir Diagne joined NPR recently to discuss France's decision to move the Mona Lisa to a new dedicated space in the Louvre.

"'People have just been coming to check their 'I paid a visit to the Mona Lisa box,' said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a professor of French and philosophy at Columbia University who was appointed by the museum in 2024 to give a series of lectures about its art collection. 'And even if you go to that room with the intention of looking at the other paintings, you would be distracted by everything happening around the Mona Lisa.'"

Read or listen to the article here.