Parisian museums display mixed results for 2019, generally down compared to 2018, under the combined effect of "yellow vests" and strikes. That the route of the events passes close to a museum, that it is not served by a metro, that it does not have a flagship exhibition to attract visitors despite all the obstacles… All this plays in its attendance .
In early 2019, the passage of "yellow vests" made tedious checks and deterrent access to the Grand Palais and to other museums such as the Petit Palais or the Palais de Tokyo. The controls were eased in the spring. Then the difficulties resumed on December 5.
Falling turnover in shops
For lack of staff - strikers or employees unable to come from distant suburbs - the museums have reduced their opening hours, closed rooms, and, more rarely, have not been able to open their doors entirely. The Grand Palais, even if it benefited from the automatic number 1 line and the appeal of its Gréco and Toulouse-Lautrec exhibitions, saw its attendance drop in December by 25% (- 45,000 visitors).
As Emmanuel Marcovitch, deputy director general of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais, explains, the stores managed by the RMN have suffered: “There are museums where there has been a decrease of up to a third in turnover, "he told AFP.
The little-known museums most affected
The museums of the City of Paris, often too little known, have welcomed more than 3 million visitors, but have suffered more than 50% drop in attendance since December 5. For Delphine Lévy, director of Paris Musées, “national social movements have had an impact in particular at the Petit Palais and the Museum of Modern Art. We have very beautiful exhibitions there, Hartung, Gemito, Luca Giordano. It's a shame! "
Even drop in the network of the Center of National Monuments (CMN), which received 9.97 million visits: the days of closure of the Arc de Triomphe and the heat wave played. If the towers of Notre-Dame are no longer visitable, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Pantheon have seen an increase in attendance.
With 3.2 million visits (-8%), the Pompidou Center reduced its hours, eliminated its night hours, causing a drop of 40% in December. Decrease which has impacted the museum more than exhibitions like Bacon or Vasarely.
Record for the Musée d'Orsay
The Louvre, which received 9.6 million visitors in 2019, below 2018 (10.2 million), minimizes the impact of social movements, justifying this drop by a proactive policy of closings in the summer in order to better manage the influx. It welcomes the permanence of foreign visitors (75% of the total).
The Musée d'Orsay achieved its absolute record of 3.6 million (+ 11%). And scientific museums are doing well: the City of Science and Industry + 8%, the Palace of Discovery, + 15%.
Culture
Exhibitions: From Vinci to the Louvre, Greco to the Grand Palais, Tolkien to the BNF… How to survive the blockbusters of winter
- Strike
- Paris
- Culture
- Museum
- Louvre
- Big palace
- Orsay Museum