2023-12-08 20:25:44
The most famous Parisian museum announced this Friday, December 8, an increase of almost 30% in ticket prices. From January 15, entry increases to 22 euros instead of 17.
It will cost more to go and admire the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo. The Louvre Museum announced this Friday, December 8, a significant increase in ticket prices, which had not changed in seven years. From January 15, the entrance to the museum increases to 22 euros, after having remained at 17 euros since 2017. Certainly, this increase of 29% can be compared to an inflation of 30% over the same period, according to the index consumer prices from INSEE. It remains no less substantial.
The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, with 86,000 m² of spaces open to the public, and 7.2 million visitors in 2022 (after a record of 10.2 million in 2018). Its ticket office brought in 76.5 million euros last year, according to the annual report. This only covered a quarter of its operating costs, the rest being financed by credits from the Ministry of Culture and by other resources, including patronage.
More than 40% non-paying visitors this year
In a press release, the museum stressed that “more than one in two French visitors enter for free”. This concerns people under 25, the unemployed, beneficiaries of minimum social benefits, the disabled and their carers, teachers, and cultural professionals and journalists. Of the 8.7 million visitors estimated in 2023, 3.6 million of them (or 41%) are expected not to have paid entry.
“I am happy and proud to see the French public, from Ile-de-France and Paris, reclaiming the Louvre Museum. The quality of this relationship is at the heart of our mission,” said its president, Laurence des Cars, quoted in the press release. She, who arrived at the head of the institution in September 2021, imposed a ceiling of 30,000 visitors per day. It is maintained in 2024. However, it wishes to extend the opening hours. The management is “working with the union organizations to offer a second evening, every Wednesday, planned from April,” said the museum.
Second opening planned and necessary renovation work
The museum hopes to finance in the coming years a project to open a second entrance, in addition to the one under the Pyramid inaugurated in 1988, which is now saturated. It would be via the east façade, at the Louvre-Rivoli metro station. The timeline and cost are not known. It also needs renovations. This is what was shown by an exhibition dedicated to the designer Claude Gillot, closed due to water infiltration. Opened on November 9, it closed permanently on the 11th, to shelter the works.
For the many tourists who will come to Paris during the Olympics, from July 26 to August 11, the increase in the entrance fee to the Louvre is not the only price increase announced. The price of a metro ticket will almost double during the event, to 4 euros each (compared to 2.10 euros today) and 32 euros for ten (compared to 16.90 euros). And the average price of a hotel night in Île-de-France increased from 169 euros, in July 2023, to 699 euros during the Olympics, according to a September report from the Tourist Office.
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