2023-12-08 21:07:56
From January 15, 2024, entry will increase to 22 euros, after remaining at 17 euros since 2017. This increase of 29% compares to inflation of 30% over the same period, according to the price index. for INSEE consumption. For the many tourists who will come to Paris during the Olympic Games (JO), from July 26 to August 11, this 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 Ile-de-France increased from 169 euros, in July 2023, to 699 euros during the Olympics, according to a September report from the tourist office.
The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, with 86,000 square meters 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 one in two French visitors enter for free”
Opened in 1793 in a former royal palace in the heart of Paris, the Louvre is one of the great tourist attractions of the French capital. It presents extremely rich collections, which range from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, several millennia before our era, to the fine arts of the 19th century.
Visitors come from all over the world to admire, among other things, The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (early 16th century), the Venus de Milo (2nd century BC) or Egyptian antiquities in excellent state of conservation. In a communiquéthe museum specified that “more than one in two French visitors enter for free”. This includes, among others, those under 26, the unemployed, beneficiaries of minimum social benefits, the disabled and their carers, teachers, cultural professionals and journalists.
Of the 8.7 million visitors estimated in 2023, 3.6 million of them (or 41%) should not have to pay 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”welcomed its president, Laurence des Cars, quoted in the press release.
A second entry in the project, and a need for renovations
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 direction “works with trade union organizations to offer a second evening, every Wednesday, planned from April”said the museum.
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 done through the east facade, at the Louvre-Rivoli metro level. 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.
The Louvre is also continuing its acquisitions of works. He launched an appeal to patrons at the beginning of November to become the owner of a still life by Jean Siméon Chardin, The Wild Strawberry Basket (1761), which cost 24.3 million euros.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers The Louvre launches a public subscription for “The Basket of Wild Strawberries”, by Chardin
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