Help with a people/museum photo -- contrast

This image was grabbed in the Louvre a couple weeks ago. The contrasty lighting on the wall is quite the problem. Especially since I'd like to present this as a black and white, in which case there's even more of a problem when I pump up the contrast to separate the blacks. At least in B/W I can reduce the lighting and it doesn't change the color (everything's a shade of gray anyway.) But even then it looks unbalanced.

Cropping doesn't help, and it loses the spaciousness of the room. Well, now that I look at it twice it does eliminate the thing on the ceiling and I could clone out the frame on the left......

Recommendations? Other than it needs to be straightened (the people look more natural as is), there's this ugly large frame hanging on the wall on the left, and I should have included more on the right (couldn't as there's a doorway there.) And here I thought I was finally gonna get a shot like Andre Kertesz.

Bruce
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BAB