France, there is first case of museum closing due to Covid infection cases

The first museum forced to close its doors again after the lockdown due to cases of Covid-19 coronavirus infection is in France: it happens at the Musée Soulages in Rodez, a town of 26,000 inhabitants in Occitania, which has been imposed a fourteen-day shutdown, from Sept. 6 to Sept. 20, 2020. Indeed, “several confirmed cases of Covid-19 have reportedly been detected in the museum among reception and surveillance staff,” reads a note from the Musée Soulages.

“Initial investigations,” the museum points out, “show that in order to avoid a possible spread among staff, it is necessary to quarantine the affected employees. As a result, and because it is not possible to materially ensure the reception of the public, the prefect of Aveyron has decided, at the proposal of the Regional Health Agency and the management of the Musée Soulages, and following a resolution of the president of the intermunicipal union of Rodez, to close the museum until September 20 inclusive.”

It is, therefore, a case of contagion among staff: no contagion among visitors is recorded at the moment. In fact, the museum recalled that the many visitors who frequented the museum’s halls after the reopening were received in compliance with all medical and sanitary regulations in force in the country. In addition, the institute made it known that the “causes of the infection of some of the reception and surveillance staff are exogenous.” According to a statement to the French press by the museum’s director, Benoît Decron, there are six infected, all of them young: they are four seasonal employees, one employee, and one temporary worker. They apparently contracted Covid during a restaurant dinner on August 31. “The virus did not circulate in the museum, which has been very compliant with the anti-contagious regulations since reopening on May 21,” Decron said.

Finally, the museum apologized to visitors who had planned to visit during the days of closure. A closure that was therefore decided not because it was not possible to open the museum safely, but because, with staff in quarantine, the institute cannot guarantee a sufficient number of reception and surveillance staff.

The Musée Soulages in Rodez opened its doors in 2014, following the donation (dating back to 2005) of artist Pierre Soulages (Rodez, 1919), who left the Rodez community a corpus of 250 works and 250 documents: this is the largest donation by a living artist ever in France. Since its opening date, the museum’s collection has been steadily enriched and thus today houses the largest collection of works by the French painter and draftsman.

France, there is first case of museum closing due to Covid infection cases

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