The Louvre decided on Thursday to increase the price of entry tickets for its non-European visitors by 45% from 2026, a measure promoted by the government and denounced by unions, the museum and employee organizations told AFP.
From January 14, nationals outside the European Economic Area (EEA which includes the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) will have to pay 32 euros to wander through the most visited museum in the world, or 10 euros more than the current entry price.
69% foreigners among the 2024 clientele
Approved Thursday by the Louvre’s board of directors, this increase will apply in particular to Americans, who form the first contingent of foreign visitors, but also to the Chinese who rank third, according to the museum’s 2024 activity report. According to this document, the Louvre welcomed 8.7 million people last year, 69% of whom were foreigners.
In turmoil since the spectacular burglary of October 19, the Louvre hopes to draw from this increase “15 to 20 million euros” per year in additional revenue, which will be allocated to “structural problems” of the museum, the establishment told AFP.
According to a recent report from the Court of Auditors, the Louvre faces “a wall of investments that it is not able to finance”, notably due to “a lack of prioritization of its numerous projects”.
The burglary of October 19 also highlighted “under-equipment of security devices”, according to the administrative investigation launched after this theft of Crown jewels.
“Visiting and working conditions are not up to par with the Louvre”
This price increase was proposed in January by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, who assured that she wanted to be “innovative” to release new resources after the alert launched by the president of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, on the dilapidation of the establishment.
“The conditions for visiting and working are not up to par at the Louvre,” the minister declared at the time, adding that the funds generated by this increase would go in particular to financing President Emmanuel Macron’s vast project to renovate the Louvre, estimated by the Court of Auditors at more than a billion euros.
The price of the Louvre entrance ticket had already increased from 17 to 22 euros in January 2024 for all visitors.
– “Excess work” –
In the name of the “universalism” of the Louvre and “equal access” to its collections, the unions unanimously criticized the increase in the entry price for non-Europeans.
“The argument of the rehabilitation of the building to justify the annihilation of two centuries of universalism at the Louvre does not convince us,” said the SUD union.
According to the CGT, this price list will lead residents outside the EEA to “pay a high price, confirming the disengagement of the State, to visit a dilapidated museum”. “The targeted public will experience this as discrimination,” according to Valérie Baud, CFDT delegate.
Trade union organizations, which regularly denounce problems of understaffing, are also concerned about the additional burden that this new grid will place on agents, who will be responsible for checking the nationality of visitors. “We have not forgotten the additional work that this will cause for the teams,” worries SUD.
Other French tourist places could follow
In its recent report on the Louvre, the Court of Auditors went in a similar direction by specifying that the solution envisaged was to apply “by default” the highest rate, requiring European nationals to prove their place of residence. “Which involves a significant number of people to be controlled,” underlined the Court.
Other major French tourist places will also have to adapt. According to Rachida Dati, a differentiated price scale will thus be in force in 2026 in “all national cultural operators”.
Quoted by the minister, the Château de Versailles told AFP that it was considering increasing the price of individual visits for residents outside the EEA by three euros. This change in scale, which could bring in some 9.3 million euros, has however not yet been approved by the board of directors. Another tourist site mentioned by the minister, the Orsay Museum, told AFP that it was not planning any price changes at this stage.