The visits are a “real physical test”; the site is overcrowded, lacking proper signposting or “any spaces to take a break”; the food and drink facilities are low-quality; the toilets are not up to standard and there is “structural damage” everywhere, threatening the collections.
These are not, in fact, negative reviews from disgruntled tourists, but comments from the director of the Musée du Louvre, Laurence des Cars, about her own institution—in a leaked memo to the French culture minister published in Le Parisien last week. The daily, owned by the collector Bernard Arnault’s luxury group LVMH, claims the Louvre is “in danger” and needs “hundreds of millions of euros” to be fixed.
Amid media fallout from leaked memo, the French president Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to visit the Louvre on Tuesday to announce a grand plan to save the world’s biggest museum. The culture minister herself, Rachida Dati, has already hinted that the Louvre will increase the price of the entrance ticket for tourists coming from outside the European Union, as a means to raise funds. According to informed sources, LVMH—which has been boosting its profile with contributions to several major French heritage projects, including the reopening of Notre Dame—may announce its readiness to participate in a national effort to restore the museum.
The Louvre has not given a budget for the renovation, but several sources tell The Art Newspaper that the museum leadership, internally and in communications with state bodies, has estimated a cost of €1bn. This is 30% more than the five-year reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral and comes at a time when the new government is desperately looking for ways to cut spending across the board.
Part of the funds could be raised through sponsorship and the museum’s own financial holdings, including revenue from Louvre Abu Dhabi—but structural repairs for French heritage sites can only be covered by public subsidies.
A different scale
The Louvre was the most visited museum in the world in 2023, welcoming 8.9 million visitors—a figure that however remains below highs of previous years, with more than 10 million visitors recorded in 2019. In the past decade the museum has launched several projects to improve conditions for visitors, including a three-year €50m renovation of the entrance hall under the glass pyramid.
Yet the director’s wish list is much more ambitious than that, as she publicly revealed in a grandiose plan last year. Along with the renovation of the museum’s infrastructure—including insulation, plumbing and revamping of the central Grande Galerie of Italian painting—she proposed a slew of projects that have been considered in the past. They include isolating Leonardo's Mona Lisa, which draws 80% of the museum’s visitors, in a designated room; building a new exhibition hall; opening a fine dining restaurant; and creating a subterranean tunnel under the museum to connect it all. This tunnel would lead to the Egyptian department, with a new entrance on the eastern wing of the palace next to the Samaritaine, LVMH’s luxury hotel and mall.
Des Cars did not provide the budget for this plan but internally the cost for the new entrance alone has been estimated at more than €400m (the Louvre declined to comment when approached by The Art Newspaper).
The director may struggle to find support for her plan, especially at a time when museum resources are stretched and unions are up in arms against management. “We have leaks, floods and electrical breakdowns everywhere,” says a representative of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), “and the museum has suffered 200 job losses in the past ten years”.
In a statement, another union, Sud Solidarités, claims that conditions at the museum have deteriorated since Des Cars’ arrival. “Yes, the Louvre is indeed in a distressing state, the visiting conditions 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 project of a new entrance as “aberrant in a period of public deficit”, however, when the culture ministry’s budget may be cut by €150m.
Elise Muller, the head of the cultural ministry branch of Sud Solidarités, says: “The museum actually has the money, but for the past three and a half years, Laurence des Cars’ team has chosen to reduce spending on the ten-year plan for the maintenance of the museum... She prefers to use the public subsidies for glamour projects for a happy few.” Examples of this, she continues, include “the building of an ephemeral theatre for a week in a courtyard” and “the invitation of a star photographer from Los Angeles” to take pictures of paintings lent by the Naples Museum Capodimonte.
“In the context, does the Louvre really need to invite a rock band as a resident artist and set up a studio for two months for them?”, she says, refering Feu Chatterton’s recent residency. “Not to mention that Laurence des Cars has converted one space into a private restaurant for herself and her guests”.
The Louvre declined to comment.
