The visits are a “actual bodily check”; the location is overcrowded, missing correct signposting or “any areas to take a break”; the food and drinks services are low-quality; the bathrooms are lower than normal and there may be “structural injury” in all places, threatening the collections.
These will not be, actually, detrimental critiques from disgruntled vacationers, however feedback from the director of the Musée du Louvre, Laurence des Automobiles, about her personal establishment—in a leaked memo to the French tradition minister revealed in Le Parisien final week. The each day, owned by the collector Bernard Arnault’s luxurious group LVMH, claims the Louvre is “in peril” and wishes “a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of euros” to be mounted.
Amid media fallout from leaked memo, the French president Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to go to the Louvre on Tuesday to announce a grand plan to save lots of the world’s greatest museum. The tradition minister herself, Rachida Dati, has already hinted that the Louvre will improve the worth of the doorway ticket for vacationers coming from outdoors the European Union, as a way to boost funds. Based on knowledgeable sources, LVMH—which has been boosting its profile with contributions to a number of main French heritage initiatives, together with the reopening of Notre Dame—might announce its readiness to take part in a nationwide effort to revive the museum.
The Louvre has not given a funds for the renovation, however a number of sources inform The Artwork Newspaper that the museum management, internally and in communications with state our bodies, has estimated a price of €1bn. That is 30% greater than the five-year reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral and comes at a time when the brand new authorities is desperately searching for methods to chop spending throughout the board.
A part of the funds may very well be raised by way of sponsorship and the museum’s personal monetary holdings, together with income from Louvre Abu Dhabi—however structural repairs for French heritage websites can solely be coated by public subsidies.
A distinct scale
The Louvre was probably the most visited museum on this planet in 2023, welcoming 8.9 million guests—a determine that nevertheless stays beneath highs of earlier years, with greater than 10 million guests recorded in 2019. Up to now decade the museum has launched a number of initiatives to enhance circumstances for guests, together with a three-year €50m renovation of the doorway corridor beneath the glass pyramid.
But the director’s want listing is rather more formidable than that, as she publicly revealed in a grandiose plan final yr. Together with the renovation of the museum’s infrastructure—together with insulation, plumbing and revamping of the central Grande Galerie of Italian portray—she proposed a slew of initiatives which have been thought-about previously. They embrace isolating Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, which attracts 80% of the museum’s guests, in a chosen room; constructing a greater exhibition corridor; opening a wonderful eating restaurant; and making a subterranean tunnel beneath the museum to attach all of it. This tunnel would result in the Egyptian division, with a brand new entrance on the jap wing of the palace subsequent to the Samaritaine, LVMH’s luxurious resort and mall.
Des Automobiles didn’t present the funds for this plan however internally the fee has been estimated at greater than €400m (the Louvre declined to remark when approached by The Artwork Newspaper).
The director might battle to seek out help for her plan, particularly at a time when museum sources are stretched and unions are up in arms in opposition to administration. “We’ve leaks, floods and electrical breakdowns in all places,” says a consultant of the Normal Confederation of Labour (CGT), “and the museum has suffered 200 job losses previously ten years”.
In a press release, one other union, Sud Solidarités, claims that circumstances on the museum have deteriorated since Des Automobiles’ arrival. “Sure, the Louvre is certainly in a distressing state, the visiting circumstances are deplorable and the dilapidation of the place is “threatening the collections,” says the union, calling for an “emergency plan” for the Louvre’s restoration. It describes the grand challenge of a brand new entrance as “aberrant in a interval of public deficit”, nevertheless, when the tradition ministry’s funds could also be lower by €150m.
Elise Muller, the pinnacle of the cultural ministry department of Sud Solidarités, says: “The museum truly has the cash, however for the previous three and a half years, Laurence des Automobiles’ workforce has chosen to cut back spending on the ten-year plan for the upkeep of the museum… She prefers to make use of the general public subsidies for glamour initiatives for a contented few.” Examples of this, she continues, embrace “the constructing of an ephemeral theatre for per week in a courtyard” and “the invitation of a star photographer from Los Angeles” to take photos of work lent by the Naples Museum Capodimonte.
“Within the context, does the Louvre actually need to ask a rock band as a resident artist and arrange a studio for 2 months for them?”, she says, refering Feu Chatterton’s latest residency. “To not point out that Laurence des Automobiles has transformed one area into a personal restaurant for herself and her company”.
The Louvre declined to remark.
