PHOTOS: Europe’s museums in high demand, sell out of limited tickets in reopenings

Museums in Europe are seeing initial high demand as they open their doors following months of closure because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Louvre in Paris, the world’s most-visited museum, sold out of the 7,400 tickets available when it reopened Monday after almost four months. However, this was just a fraction of its usual occupancy. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, the museum typically welcomed between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors a day, mostly from outside France. London’s National Gallery is set to reopen on Wednesday after being shut an unprecedented 111 days. It will be the first national museum in the U.K. to welcome visitors following the country’s lockdown. Museums are intensifying cleaning procedures, requiring visitors to wear face masks and instituting one-way systems to enforce social distancing. Some, including the Vatican Museums, are testing the temperatures of visitors upon entry.