Six months before the Olympics, the Louvre, the most visited museum in the world, will increase its prices. From mid-January, you will now have to pay 22 euros instead of 17. With this increase in the entrance ticket, the Louvre aligns itself with the domain of the Château de Versailles (which will require 21 euros from January also) and approaches American museums such as the MoMa or the Guggenheim in New York.
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To attempt a selfie next to “The Mona Lisa”, climb the steps in front of the imposing “Victory of Samothrace” or discover the refined ceramics of the Islamic world, visitors to the Louvre will have to pay almost 30% more.
Energy prices have increased sharply, justifies the Parisian museum. We therefore have to find money and the president of the Louvre says she does not want to compromise on the comfort of the visit. The ceiling of 30,000 visitors maximum per day will therefore not be increased.
The museum is banking on foreign tourists
The museum is betting that foreign tourists – who represent two thirds of entries – will continue to come in droves and ensures that many French people already enter for free: the unemployed, the disabled, teachers, cultural professionals, journalists… The others, given inflation, might still think twice.
Decline in patronage, change in cultural habits after Covid and pressure from public authorities who subsidize so that their own resources increase, museums are playing on the price of admissions. But at the Louvre, these only covered a quarter of the operating costs in 2022.
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