Pierre Moscovici made a point of repeating several times during the press conference this morning that there was no interference from the Court of Auditors in the political domain with regard to the project for a new entrance and new spaces for the Louvre Museum announced by Emmanuel Macron himself.
But in reality it amounts to the same thing. By insisting that the museum must “better prioritize your projects and find a sustainable financial trajectory in the long term”the First President of the Court implicitly affirms that the Louvre does not have the means today to finance this extension (estimated at €660 million) while ensuring the essential restoration work (€480 million) that the theft of the crown jewels brought to light.
The Court’s report on the period 2018-2024 is even much more critical: “The museum has favored visible and attractive operations (…) to the detriment of the maintenance and renovation of buildings and technical installations, particularly safety and security. ». It compares the 86 million euros spent during this period for maintenance and restoration work on the palace with the 168 million spent on acquisitions and museographic developments.
Eastern facade of the Palais du Louvre / colonnade by Perrault.
And to force the Louvre to review its operating costs, the magistrates recommend that the proceeds from the Louvre Abu Dhabi brand license be entirely returned to the endowment fund rather than being kept in the Louvre budget and that the museum does not draw on the fund’s proceeds as it did in 2024. They also take a positive look at the financial management of the endowment fund: the annualized return (5.83%) is higher than the set objective. And to give the fund more autonomy, they suggest that the Louvre be less represented in its governance.
The Court also looked at the Society of Friends of the Louvre for the first time with a recommendation that will not please them. She wants the Louvre to reinternalize the management of subscription cards currently managed by the Friends.
The moment most awaited by the many televisions present unusually in the room – that on security measures – was discussed only briefly, in the 4 pages of the report on the subject. It appears from the report and the responses from the Louvre that if the museum has not lost interest in the problem as we hear here and there, a lot of time has been lost since the launch of the project in 2017 “safety” and that basically very little has been done. Especially since Laurence des Cars wanted to review the plan in 2022.
“The Louvre is not the victim of insufficient resources” insisted Pierre Moscovici, who pleads for a reallocation of resources to maintenance and restoration work.
Crowd of visitors in front The Mona Lisa at the Louvre.
