The French Court of Auditors (Cour des comptes) has published two unpublished reports devoted to the Musée du Louvre, which provide an overview of the strategy and financial management of the world’s most visited institution. The analyses cover both the Établissement public du musée du Louvre (EPML), the entity that manages the museum, and the Fonds de dotation du musée du Louvre (FDML), the instrument created to ensure stable long-term financing. The documents, which are both technical and strategic in nature, call for greater clarity in priorities and more sustainable management of resources. Their publication intervenes in a particular context: the theft on Oct. 19 in the Galerie d’Apollon, where the Crown Jewels were on display, sparked deep emotion in France and around the world, bringing attention back to the importance of investments in security and maintenance of the museum’s infrastructure. For the Cour des comptes, the Louvre must ensure that its material and artistic heritage is protected, and that its ambition as a “universal museum accessible to all” is based on a solid and lasting financial foundation.
During the examined period between 2018 and 2024, the Louvre faced unprecedented challenges. In 2018 it welcomed more than ten million visitors, two-thirds of them foreigners, a record influx that consolidated its position as the world’s leading cultural attraction. This success, however, was followed by the 2020-2021 health crisis, which caused a drastic reduction in revenue, and the gradual deterioration of technical infrastructure, a legacy of the Grand Louvre’s work in the 1980s and 1990s.
According to the ECA, the museum must first redefine its publics policy. This means improving the qualitative and quantitative knowledge of visitors, which is still fragmented, and reconsidering how subscriptions are managed, currently entrusted in a fragile legal framework to the Société des Amis du Louvre. The institution is called upon to strengthen its relationship with proximity audiences and revive school attendance, which is still below pre-pandemic levels.
The Louvre has meanwhile pursued an ambitious policy of enriching its collections, with the acquisition of 2,754 works in eight years, a brisk pace that confirms the museum’s vitality but raises questions about the balance of its priorities: less than a quarter of the works acquired are currently on public display. For these operations, the museum invested 145 million euros between 2018 and 2024, 105 million of which came from its own resources. The Cour des comptes recommends revising the statutory rule that requires 20 percent of ticketing revenue to be allocated to the acquisition of new works, proposing todirect these funds toward the renovation and security of the building. According to the accounting magistrates, the museum has in recent years prioritized the most visible operations-acquisitions and refurbishments-while neglecting the maintenance and upgrading of the facilities.
The data collected show that between 2018 and 2024, the Louvre allocated only 27 million euros to maintenance and technical adaptation works and 60 million to the restoration of the building, for a total of 87 million, less than half of what was spent on acquisitions and new fittings. A level deemed insufficient for a building of 243,000 square meters and with 73,000 meters of exhibition galleries.
The renovation plan called “Louvre Demain,” launched in 2023, aims to make up for these delays with technological modernization, energy improvements and security upgrades. The Cour des comptes believes the museum has the necessary resources to implement it without additional public funds. With more than 60 percent of its own resources-mostly from tickets, which generated about 125 million euros in 2024-the Louvre maintains a solid financial autonomy, among the highest among French state museums.
To ensure the sustainability of future expenditures, the Court recommends strengthening the role of the museum’s Endowment Fund (FDML) so that it becomes the main instrument for financing long-term investments. In particular, revenues from the already collected and future “Louvre Abu Dhabi” brand license should be fully paid into the fund to support the multi-year restoration and modernization program. The Fonds de dotation du musée du Louvre, created in 2009 following the intergovernmental agreement that created the Louvre Abu Dhabi, was the first and remains the largest endowment fund in France, inspired by Anglo-Saxon models of endowment funds. By the end of 2025, the museum had received €467.5 million in revenues from the “Louvre Abu Dhabi” license, of which €260 million was paid to the FDML and €207.5 million retained by the museum itself.
The fund is now the Louvre’s main long-term financing tool, thanks to regular transfers that have exceeded 80 million euros since 2018. The review conducted by the Court of Auditors, covering the period 2014-2024, shows an overall efficient management of the fund, but also some structural limitations: its statutory autonomy is reduced, its fundraising strategy too dependent on the museum, and its governance insufficiently balanced. The accounting magistrates emphasize that while the FDML has proven its usefulness as a financial lever, its institutional positioning needs to be clarified and its independence strengthened so as to diversify its sources of funding and support the Louvre in its long-term projects.
In the course of the investigation, the Court of Auditors also highlighted the fragility of the medium-term financial trajectory of the museum, which has embarked on numerous investment projects, some of which - such as the “Louvre Grande Colonnade” operation - have not yet been fully financed. Faced with this situation, the main recommendation is to establish a clear hierarchy of projects, focusing resources on essential priorities: security, maintenance of technical infrastructure and restoration of the palace.
The Cour des comptes’ analysis concludes with a constructive message: the Louvre must not reduce its ambition, but ensure that it is based on sustainable and transparent management. Only then can it continue to embody, in France and around the world, a universal and accessible museum, capable of reconciling heritage protection, contemporary creation, and openness to the public.
|
|
| France, Court of Auditors berates Louvre: invest more in security |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
