The director of the Louvre has revealed that is a "physical ordeal" to visit the museum, due to leaks and substandard catering. In a leaked memo written by Laurence des Cars for the French culture minister, Rachida Dati, the alarming state of the Louvre museum in Paris was detailed. Capable of welcoming around four million visitors each year, in 2024 the Louvre experienced more than double that number, with 8.7 million people coming through its doors. Around 70 per cent of those came from outside of France.
In her memo, which was published by Le Parisien newspaper, Des Cars bluntly shared her view of the museum. “Visiting the Louvre is a physical ordeal; accessing the artworks takes time and is not always easy,” she wrote. “Visitors have no space to take a break. The food options and restroom facilities are insufficient in volume, falling below international standards. The signage needs to be completely redesigned.”.
Des Cars added that crowds had added to the damage evident in parts of the museum, some of which had fallen into "very poor condition" to the extent that some areas “are no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks”.
The memo also acknowledge the French Government's current budget limits, but expressed that the Louvre was in desperate need of an expensive overhaul. Des Cars went on to claim that one of the museum's newest editions — a glass pyramid designed by the Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei – had “major shortcomings”. The pyramid, which was used by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for a state dinner as the Paris Olympics kicked off in July, was also noted as creating a "greenhouse effect" on hot days, "making this space very inhospitable for the public who pass through and the agents who work there".
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