The Louvre reopens with reduced ranks. The director: ours is a tourist museum

In Paris , the world’s most visited museum, the Louvre, will reopen on July 6 after nearly four months of closure for measures to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus infection. To ensure that all of its visitors can visit in total safety, the conditions of visitation have been modified: compulsory to book a visit and also compulsory to wear a mask for all visitors over the age of 11, in addition to observing physical distancing. There will be one-way visiting routes to prevent visitor groups from crossing each other.

The museum will be open at reduced ranks: in fact, only 45,000 square meters of the Louvre will be open, which is about 70 percent of its space. The Egyptian collections, the halls of Greek and Roman antiquities, the first part of the Islamic art section, Italian and northern European sculpture, Italian, Spanish and English paintings, masterpieces of 19th-century French painting, the crown jewels, the apartments of Napoleon III, medieval and Louis XIV-era collections, and French sculpture from the 17th to 19th centuries will be open. By contrast, the rooms of medieval French sculpture, the Renaissance, 18th- and 19th-century rooms, the African art section, the Asian, Oceanic, and American art sections, part of the Islamic art section, and the second floor of French and Northern European paintings will not be accessible. They will also be working at reduced ranks: bulky luggage will not be allowed because it will not be accepted at the checkroom. Hours will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (except Tuesdays, the traditional closing day). Visits will be open to groups: however, they will consist of a maximum of 25 people, and they will have to be mandatorily equipped with radio guides to ensure spacing.

Outlining the measures was Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez, who held a press conference Tuesday. One of the main themes of the meeting was the museum’s tourism impact, since the Louvre is known to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris. “The Louvre is a tourist museum,” he said. “But for me ’tourist’ is not an insult. It is a diverse group that includes enthusiasts and educated visitors. When I visit a museum in New York, I am considered a tourist.” In 2019, the Louvre had touched 10 million visitors: numbers that won’t be seen for a while, but sooner or later the Louvre will start seeing tourists again. “I don’t think mass tourism will disappear overnight,” he said. “Today the museum is visited by whole generations of Chinese, Indians, Brazilians. I don’t see how to tell them that they should give up traveling.” In short: the Louvre will have to do without tourists for quite some time (it lost 40 million euros during the confinement, by the way), but we learn from the director’s statements that tourists will have to come back. In the meantime, the museum will take the opportunity to improve the visitor experience and find innovative ways to manage flows.

The Louvre reopens with reduced ranks. The director: ours is a tourist museum

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