Louvre staff name a strike because of the degradation of the museum | Culture | EUROtoday

French President Emmanuel Macron introduced final January a plan to convey concerning the “rebirth” of the Louvre museum. The head of state, imbued with the solemnity of a pacesetter who ties his destiny to that of an important artwork gallery on the earth, promised a significant reform to place an finish to the decline of the museum, whose infrastructure, group and upkeep have been failing. Literally. A yr later, the chaos that has engulfed the Louvre was unimaginable on the time. After the spectacular theft of the crown jewels in October and a water leak that triggered vital harm to a gallery with documentation on the Egyptian interval, the artwork gallery is heading in direction of a strike beginning subsequent December 15, just a few days earlier than the Christmas holidays.

On Sunday, the entire museum’s union organizations (CFDT, CGT and SUD) offered a renewable strike discover beginning Monday, December 15, to protest in opposition to “degraded working conditions” and “insufficient means,” in accordance with the AFP company. The discover was offered to the Ministry of Culture and was authorised unanimously at a normal meeting that introduced collectively “about 200 people” on Monday morning within the Louvre auditorium, in accordance with the unions.

The unions denounce what the museum’s administration itself introduced a yr in the past in a doc that was leaked to the press: the Louvre goes by a strategy of degradation of its unsustainable area. In addition, the staff’ focus is on the dearth of workers and the administration of President Laurence des Cars, on the head of the establishment since 2021, whom they blame for a “pyramidal and compartmentalized” administration. “Every day, museum spaces are closed well beyond what was foreseen in the guaranteed opening plan, due to lack of sufficient staff and also due to technical failures,” the unions denounce in a letter addressed to the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati.

“The public now only has limited access to the works and is hindered in their movements. Visiting the Louvre has become a true obstacle course,” additionally they state. According to them, “the various internal alerts have gone unanswered” and what was expressed “before the national representation and the media by the management of the Louvre does not allow us to expect an awareness at the level of the crisis we are going through.” For this purpose, they request a negotiation straight with the Ministry of Culture, “due to the unprecedented degradation of the internal social climate and the need to obtain responses from the competent authorities.”

The final main renovation of the Louvre occurred within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, when François Mitterrand occupied the Elysée Palace. Then, amongst different issues, Ieoh Ming Pei, probably the most prolific and revered architects on the earth, was commissioned to design and construct the good glass and iron pyramid that may serve to welcome guests in a extra orderly method. Then the chaos ended. But the good period of mass tourism started. And even this reform doesn’t keep environmental and luxury requirements at this time.

The unions additionally level out “increasingly brutal human resources management” and “contradictory instructions.” The final social motion, on June 16, solely lasted just a few hours. This time, the strike may final over time.

Meanwhile, and after a number of arrests and three suspects in jail, the police nonetheless haven’t discovered the jewellery that was stolen. Their worth, 88 million euros, and the truth that they can’t be bought of their entirety, counsel that they may have already been dismantled.