The president of the Louvre Museum in Paris Laurence Des Cars alerted the French government to the state of the museum, pointing out a “multiplication of damage” and the need for major work, according to a “confidential note” revealed Wednesday by the press.
This note, dated January 13 and addressed to the French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, denounces “the severe reality of the state” of the buildings of the most visited museum in the world, “too much in demand” and many of which “are reaching a worrying level of obsolescence”, reports the newspaper Le Parisien.
The document, partly reproduced on the daily’s website, mentions a “multiplication of damage in the museum spaces which are sometimes very degraded”. “Some are no longer waterproof while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the conservation of the works,” he added.
Another complaint: the “physical ordeal” to which visitors to the Louvre are subjected, deprived of space “allowing them to take a break”.
“The food supply or sanitary facilities are insufficient, well below international standards. The signage must be completely redesigned,” it is detailed.
The great pyramid, “very inhospitable”
The newspaper Le Parisien also cites the “significant shortcomings” attributed to “the design” of the large glass pyramid of the Louvre, a space inaugurated in 1988, “very inhospitable” on “days of high heat” and to the “sound treatment (.. .) very mediocre”.
The note also insists on the need to “question” the “presentation of the Mona Lisa in the Salle des Estates”, the largest in the museum.
-In April 2024, Laurence Des Cars had already announced that she was considering improving the exhibition conditions for the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which she believes deserves a separate room.
Nearly 9 million visitors
The opening of a second entrance to the museum in order to relieve congestion of the main one, located under the Pyramid, is also among his projects.
The latter was originally designed to accommodate “four to five million visitors per year”, according to the Louvre, whose attendance will approach 9 million in 2024.
Generally speaking, “this situation can no longer tolerate the status quo”, argues Laurence Des Cars in conclusion of his note. Contacted by AFP, the Louvre and the Ministry of Culture did not react on Wednesday evening.
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