The Louvre is crumbling and needs a massive injection of state cash if it is to cope with ever-rising visitor numbers, the museum’s president has said.
Laurence des Cars issued the stark warning in a leaked letter to the government raising the alarm over power-cuts, flooding, and failing infrastructure.
She said that the famous glass pyramid – which since 1989 has housed the unique access point to the galleries – was “structurally unable to cope”, and that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, which is seen by 20,000 people every day, may have to be moved.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken a personal interest in the museum’s problems, will visit the Louvre on Wednesday amid speculation that he may announce a new investment plan.
However his powers have been significantly curtailed since he lost control of parliament six months ago, and the precarious state of France’s finances – with the 2025 budget still in dispute – makes any big financial commitment highly contentious.
According to Christian Galani of Louvre employees’ trade union, “not a day goes by without some new sign of the building’s decline – paint flaking, exhibition and storage rooms flooded, power-cuts, late-payments to contractors because there’s no money.”
In November 2023 a temporary exhibition in the Sully wing had to be moved after just a few days because of a flood.
Big variations in temperature – from 10C in winter to 30C in summer – cause discomfort to staff and visitors, as well as posing a threat to the conservation of art-works.
The temperature problem is most starkly felt in the pyramid of architect Ieoh Ming Pei, which was designed to cope with four million annual visitors but today faces more than double that. Every day some 30,000 people pass through the turnstiles, making the Louvre the most visited museum in the world.
In her letter, Laurence des Cars raised the need for better toilets, cafés and rest areas. She also said that “in the view of everyone, the presentation of the Mona Lisa… is something that needs to be looked at.”
Around three-quarters of the museum’s visitors go to see Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, but the experience has become a trial, with a constant crowd being funnelled through the Salle des Etats and getting on average 50 seconds to observe the picture and take photos.
“The public… has no way of comprehending the artist’s work, which raises questions over our whole mission of public service,” Ms des Cars said.
Among the options under consideration is the opening of a new entrance to the Louvre beneath the colonnades at the palace’s eastern end. Currently there is a large open space here, with an empty moat that is not original but was created in the 1960s.
By digging underground at the moat, and in the neighbouring Cour Carrée, new spaces could be created to ease congestion, improve facilities, and possibly house a re-located Mona Lisa. Another option for the painting would be to remove it from the main collection and require visitors to pay an extra fee.
The Louvre received a state subsidy of €96m (£80m) in 2024. In 2023 it had receipts of €161m from tickets and events, as well as €83m from its sponsorship arrangement with the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
With more state money unlikely, the museum is looking increasingly to the corporate donors and philanthropists that raised €840m to rescue Notre Dame cathedral after the fire.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati is also known to support increasing entrance fees for non-EU visitors.