How many visitors is too many? Paris museums confront 'over-attendance'

In January, Paris's public museums reported record visitor numbers, sparking conversations about over-tourism. Some museum directors, focused on outreach, celebrate the influx, emphasizing their mission to share collections broadly. However, the Louvre's Laurence des Cars revealed severe infrastructure issues in a leaked memo, discussing structural damage and inadequate facilities that jeopardize the artworks. This situation raises troubling questions about the sustainability of high visitor numbers, especially concerning iconic sites like the Mona Lisa, which struggle under excessive crowds, ultimately challenging the museums' public service roles.

"A museum's mission is to radiate-to make known and to share its collections with the greatest number of people-so there is a contradiction in the idea of needing to limit how many can come."

"Substantial structural damage in at times very degraded spaces, obsolete technical apparatus, spaces that variously leak or sustain worrying temperature variations, which threaten the conservation of the artworks."

"Visiting the Louvre was described as a physical ordeal, particularly the bottleneck around the Mona Lisa, raising concerns about the mission of public service that museums embody."

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