As the crowds poured out of the Louvre, the look of dazed exhaustion on many faces confirmed what the museum’s director had warned last week: a trip to Paris’s biggest cultural attraction has become a “physical ordeal”.
Myriam, 65, a former secondary school science teacher had driven from Belgium with her husband to show their 12-year-old granddaughter the Mona Lisa. They left disappointed. “I think the Louvre is a victim of its own success,” she said. “We won’t come again.”
They had squeezed through huge crowds on Monday to try to catch a glimpse of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, but found the room badly designed and with no proper flow of people. They had been baffled by the lack of signage in the vast wings.
“There are so many people. Lots of rooms aren’t numbered. The staff are very friendly, but you feel they’re more there to show people the way than to protect the paintings,” said Myriam. “Then there’s the wait to get in – we had time-slot tickets but still had to wait 45 minutes outside. I hadn’t realised we needed separate tickets to the temporary exhibition and it was sold out.”
On Tuesday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will deliver a speech at the Louvre in which he is expected to unveil details of new investment, which could involve major overhaul – even a potential additional entrance. But the work required is vast and the government is facing severe budget constraints.
One of the largest arts centres on the planet and the world’s most visited museum, the Louvre attracts more than 8 million people a year. When it was modernised in the 1980s, it was designed to welcome 4 million visitors a year, yet now handles more than double that number and is increasingly stressing out its visitors.
On Monday, a 74-year-old clinical psychologist from Paris, who said she had been a regular visitor to the Louvre for 40 years, exited the popular temporary exhibition, Figures of the Fool, feeling battered.
“I’m leaving in a state of extreme fatigue and I’ve vowed never to visit again,” she said, declining to give her name. “The noise is so unbearable under the glass pyramid; it’s like a public swimming pool. Even with a timed ticket, there’s an hour to wait outside. I can’t do it anymore. Museums are supposed to be fun, but it’s no fun anymore. There’s no pleasure in coming here anymore. And to get out you’re made to walk the length of a shopping arcade to force people to buy things – commercial interests have taken over everything.”
The Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, warned in a damning note to the culture minister this month that the facilities were below international standards, the visits were not easy and involved long waits, and the building was in poor repair, including leaks and poor temperature controls. Despite investment in new outposts of the Louvre, including in the northern former coalmining town of Lens and in Abu Dhabi, the vast Paris museum has not had a significant structural overhaul in decades.
Macron, who chose the Louvre as the backdrop to his presidential victory speech in 2017, has decided to personally address the crisis. After the recent renovation of Notre Dame cathedral five years after it was damaged by fire, the Louvre could be Macron’s next legacy project, as he seeks to focus on issues that could unite the deeply divided political class and voters. “The Louvre is the most-visited museum in world, it deserves all our care,” said one Élysée official.
Another Élysée source said: “The situation is urgent and the Louvre is our shared heritage. France’s power in the coming years is its capacity to show its independence on a range of issues, particularly as a cultural exception.”
The Louvre, which has been used for diplomacy and soft power by several presidents, is seen as too important for its image to be tarnished.
Nurperi, 40, a physiotherapist from Ankara in Turkey, who had visited with her children, enjoyed the Islamic art and braved the crowds for the Mona Lisa. “The art works were beautiful,” she said, but conceded there could have been better information and signage, more toilets and, ideally, less queuing.
Véronique, a retired administrator from Paris said: “The Louvre is just so huge. I went to the Musée d’Orsay recently and, although it’s also popular, it seemed more accessible, and more human – much less crazy than the Louvre.”
