Paris. “The project that will be submitted to you is realistic and funded”said Emmanuel Macron in his speech of presentation of the “new renaissance of the Louvre” on January 28. This is not entirely correct in view of the figures circulating, whose imprecision is perplexed on the state of preparation of the project. Laurence des Cars, president of the Parisian museum, indicated on February 6 at World That the renovation would cost 400 million euros and the same amount for the new entry and the rooms created under the square courtyard.
The extension would be funded by the royalty perceived as the Louvre brand license in Abu Dhabi and patronage. Of the 565 million euros in the brand license for the 2017-2047 period, according to our calculations, 270 were paid to the endowment fund and 70 increased the operating budget. 225 million remain, which have started to be poured in advance. The Louvre indicated to Jda that 200 million are argued towards the extension. Including act. We note in passing that income from the brand license will be spent (by 2030) long before its deadline (2047), which a chartered accountant would probably not authorize for private accounts.
Call for patronage
It is therefore necessary to find 200 million euros, assuming that the work costs only 400, which remains to be demonstrated – to open an entry into the colonnade built by Charles Perrault, to dig rooms under the square courtyard, to connect them to Would the pyramid only cost 400 million euros? However, patrons are very popular for the operating budget of the Louvre (on average € 14 million annually over the last period). The objective of the 200 million brought by patronage seems very ambitious. It is true that the shops and foundations near the future entrance, starting with the Samaritaine (Bernard Arnault), will largely benefit from it and therefore have an interest in the work to end quickly.
The Louvre colonnade, built between 1667 and 1670.
The renovation would be funded by an annual contribution of 10 million euros in the State and the additional ticket revenues following the increase in the price for non-Europeans (approx. € 20 million). According to the Louvre, 2.2 million foreign visitors were affected in 2023, or additional revenues of 17.6 million euros for a price of 30 euros. 17.6 million euros, it is not 20 million, it would therefore be necessary that the number of non-elevated visitors is of 2.5 million to reach these 20 million euros. Possible, but all these visitors must be over the age of 18, because the Louvre assured Jda that all young people under the age of 18 (including non-European) will continue to enter the Louvre for free after January 1, 2026.
All this is still very approximate. The expected funding appears even more perilous with regard to the very degraded situation of the operating accounts of the Louvre. The “largest museum in the world” has an equally large deficit, of 42 million euros in 2022 and 60 million in 2023 (excluding accounting writings of the brand license). How could he significantly decrease his losses in 2024 and 2025? And as he will not be able to draw indefinitely from his working capital, the state will have to come to the rescue. Yes, but how in the current purifying of the culture budget?
