The director of the Louvre museum in Paris, Laurence des Cars, alerted the French government on Thursday to the unfavorable state of the building, including problems with water seepage, overcrowding and temperature fluctuations that threaten the exhibits. TASR reports according to the AFP agency.
Des Carsová is the first woman to hold the position of director of the most visited museum in the world. She described her concerns in a letter to French Culture Minister Rachid Dati earlier this month. According to her, some of the museum premises are “in very poor condition”. In some parts, water seeps and there are extreme temperature fluctuations, which threatens the preservation of the works, she added. The letter was published on Thursday by the newspaper Le Parisien.
Despite the government’s budget problems and the closure of the Pompidou museum for renovations, des Cars emphasized that the Louvre required a rebuild, which would likely be expensive and technically complicated.
Last year alone, this museum was visited by 8.7 million people, which is approximately double the planned capacity.
At the same time, the director of the Louvre expressed concerns about the quality of the visitors’ experience. The high number of visitors literally causes a “physical burden” to its historic building, moreover “the catering options and social facilities are insufficient in terms of volume, far below the level of international standards”, wrote des Carsová.
Even the most modern part of the museum – the glass pyramid designed by the Chinese-American architect IM Pei from 1989 – is the target of criticism due to its “serious shortcomings”, writes AFP. According to des Cars, it acts like a greenhouse on hot days and has become “very inhospitable” and noisy.
“It is my duty as director to sound the alarm on these issues, and I have already done so several times,” she told reporters Thursday at the launch of the new “Louvre Couture” exhibition, which combines artwork and fashion.
Approximately 70 percent of visitors to the Louvre museum were foreigners last year. The most popular exhibit is the painting Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. It is exhibited in the largest hall, where long lines often form. According to des Cars, the way this masterpiece is presented to the public needs to be “reconsidered”. Even last year, she suggested that she needed her own dedicated section within the museum.
Des Cars took over in 2021 and since then has repeatedly said publicly that the museum is reaching its “tipping point”. One of its most striking measures was the extension of opening hours and a maximum number of 30,000 visitors per day. She also supported the idea of creating, in addition to the pyramid, a second entrance to the museum in its eastern part.
