00:00The director of the Louvre Museum will today appear before a French Parliamentary Culture Committee to answer questions about the spectacular heist of jewels at the museum last month.
00:10Laurence Descartes had previously appeared before the Senate when she said she had raised the alarm over security deficiencies at the museum.
00:19It also follows an announcement by the Louvre on Monday that it was closing one of its galleries as a precaution after a note that revealed structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building.
00:29And for more on this, I can bring in Didier Hickner, art historian and editor-in-chief of La Tribune de l'Art.
00:35Good morning, Didier, and thank you for joining us.
00:38Do you expect this appearance by Laurence Descartes at the National Assembly to go any differently to her previous audience at the Senate?
00:48I don't expect this at all because she doesn't recognise what she did not do.
00:56She tells she did everything all right, but it's not true.
01:00And it was proved by many, many, many articles, by the court of auditors, who wrote a report which was very disastrous for the Louvre.
01:12And we're told the Louvre didn't do what it had to do.
01:18Now, what were the particular failings of Laurence Descartes and the Louvre in this instance, in your opinion?
01:24One of the main failings is she's pushing a great project of a new entrance on the east of the Louvre, at the colonnade of Perrault.
01:38It's a façade of the Louvre.
01:39It's a main entrance.
01:42It's a room for exhibitions, a room for the Mona Lisa under the ground.
01:50And it will cost a lot of money.
01:54She has not.
01:54The Louvre has money.
01:56The Louvre has a lot of money.
01:57It has about 300 euros, 300 million euros.
02:03But it doesn't spend it where it must be done.
02:07It should be spent in the refection of the museum, in the security, in the works on the historical monument.
02:16And they wait because they want to put this money on this big project.
02:21And there is no money else.
02:22They wait for patronage, but they have no money for this.
02:27So, the problem is it's a priority management.
02:34Now, would you lay all the fault at the door of Laurence Descartes and the current management?
02:40Or is it a systemic thing that goes back before their tenure?
02:45No, she's not the only responsible because the president director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, was not much better.
02:53But in four years, she didn't do what she should do.
02:57And what did she do?
02:58She convinced Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to do this big project, which is so expensive.
03:08It is not studied.
03:10It is not financed.
03:13And it's going on.
03:14They are looking for architects just right now.
03:17So, it's nonsense.
03:20It doesn't work.
03:21It can't work.
03:22And it's Emmanuel Macron who supports Laurence Descartes.
03:28And it is both of them who are responsible.
03:31Now, the Louvre earlier this week said it would have to close a gallery because of structural deficiencies.
03:37Museum staff say that they had already raised the alarm over this.
03:43Is there more problems like this within the museum?
03:47It's quite an old building.
03:49Yes, it's an old building.
03:50The project I told is split in two.
03:56One is the reflection of the museum, the sexuality, and in this project, there is the reflection of this gallery.
04:04And it is 450 millions.
04:07And it is, there is money for this.
04:10And the other part is the project I told about the colonnade, and there is no money.
04:16So, yes, there are some problems, and they must put the money on these problems, on this problem of the Galerie Campana, which we just learned, we just heard it was in bad shape.
04:29And for any problem of this kind, there are a lot of problems, yes, because the Louvre is a historical monument, and it's not a new, it's not a modern batiment, you know, it's not a modern building.
04:43The Louvre, of course, the Louvre, of course, the Louvre is appearing once again before a government committee.
04:51Is there a lack of government oversight over the museum?
04:56Yes, sure, there is.
04:58No, there is a lack of government oversight because it's not the government which looks oversight of the museum.
05:03It's directly the French president.
05:05So, the Ministry of Culture should play its role, which is to tell the Louvre, you must spend money where it must be spent, and not in a project which cannot exist.
05:22Now, the public perception of the Louvre in recent weeks, particularly since the robbery last month, is probably one of an institution in disarray.
05:31Is this a problem specific to the Louvre itself, or are there other cultural institutions in France in a similar state?
05:40There are some cultural institutions which are not in good shape, but they are doing what they need to do.
05:46For example, the Centre Pompidou is closed now for a few years of works.
05:52Yes, no, I think the Louvre is the main problem for the big museums in France.
05:58The Museum of Orsay has problems too, but it's okay, it works.
06:04The Versailles Museum, it's some different kind of problems, but there is a good one, good president at his head, so it works.
06:14But the Louvre is the problem, I think.
06:16And do you think that the Louvre's problem stems from the fact that it is arguably the world's most famous museum,
06:24that it is constantly trying to attract more and more visitors to accommodate them and perhaps get more turnover, more income because of that?
06:35Maybe, but I think because it's the biggest museum in the world, I don't know how you say it, but it gets the president to become a little, with an hubris, very strong.
06:52You know, they think they are the king of the world, because they are the president of the Louvre, the biggest museum in the world.
06:58And I think it could be a problem for this.
07:01And, but, yes, sorry.
07:04No, no, and what would your solutions be to actually get past the current in-bus?
07:11The solution is to abandon the new project of the colonnade and to think of solutions which are less expensive.
07:23Yes, Mona Lisa should be put apart, but there are solutions.
07:26For example, in one wing of the Louvre, where there is exhibitions of African art masterpieces, the masterpieces of African art should be in the Museum of African Art, Quai Branly, and not in the Louvre.
07:41It has nothing to do with the Louvre, because the Louvre is not a museum of African art.
07:45And they could put, for example, the Mona Lisa here.
07:49And for exhibitions rooms, they want to build big exhibition rooms.
07:53There were exhibition rooms in the Grand Palais, you know, and the Grand Palais was refurbished for a very expensive amount, 500 million euros.
08:03And there are rooms of exhibitions.
08:05It could be there.
08:07And they need, the Louvre needs new entrances, but not a big one.
08:12Several new entrances, smaller.
08:14Thank you very much for that, Didier Rigner, art historian and editor-in-chief of La Tribune de l'Art.
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