Should foreign tourists pay more for state-funded galleries than locals, or should art be accessible to all, without discrimination?
France is hiking prices for non-Europeans at the Louvre this week, provoking debate about so-called “dual pricing.”
Effective today, any adult visitor from outside the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will have to pay 32 euros (US$37) to enter the Louvre — a 45 percent increase — while the Palace of Versailles will up its prices by 3 euros.
Photo: AFP
Americans, UK citizens and Chinese nationals, who are some of the museum’s most numerous foreign visitors, will be among those affected, as will tourists from developing countries.
The French move has few precedents elsewhere in Europe, but is more common in developing countries, where tariffs at sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the Taj Mahal in India vary.
Trade unions at the Louvre have denounced the policy as “shocking philosophically, socially and on a human level,” and have called for strike action over the change, along with a raft of other complaints.
They said that the museum’s vast collection of 500,000 items, including many from Egypt, the Middle East or Africa, hold universal human value.
While rejecting discriminatory pricing on principle, they are also worried for practical reasons, as staff will now need to check visitors’ identity papers.
French academic Patrick Poncet has drawn a parallel between France’s move and the policies of US President Donald Trump, whose administration hiked the cost for foreign tourists of visiting US National Parks by US$100 on Jan. 1.
The French policy was “symptomatic of the return, as elsewhere in the world, of unabashed nationalism,” Poncet wrote in Le Monde newspaper last month.
Other state-owned French tourist hotspots are also hiking their fees, including the Chambord Palace in the Loire region and the national opera house in Paris.
The government has justified the increases on financial grounds, looking to raise 20 million to 30 million euros annually at a time when it is under pressure to boost revenues and cut spending.
Some of the funds would go toward a colossal plan to renovate the Louvre, which French President Emmanuel Macron announced last year.
Estimated to cost about 1 billion euros, unions and some art critics have called the project wasteful.
However, everyone agrees the Louvre is in poor shape, with a recent water leak, structural problems and an embarrassing daylight robbery in October focusing minds.
“I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more for their entry tickets and for that surcharge to go toward funding the renovation of our national heritage,” French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati said at the end of 2024 as she announced the hikes.
“The French are not meant to pay for everything all by themselves,” she added.
It remains to be seen whether the break with European convention by the continent’s most-visited country will spur other cultural destinations to follow suit.
Pricing based on age is commonplace in Europe, with access for under-18s free at places such as the Acropolis in Athens, the Prado in Madrid and the Colosseum in Rome to encourage them to visit.
The Louvre will remain free for minors from all countries and Europeans under 26.
Other destinations, such as the Doge’s Palace in Venice, offer free entrance for city residents.
Britain has long had a policy of offering universal free access to permanent collections at its national galleries and museums.
However, former British Museum director Mark Jones backed fee-paying in one of his last interviews in charge, telling the <
The proposal prompted debate, but has not been adopted. A research paper published last year by the Cultural Policy Unit, a British museum think tank, opposed it for both practical and philosophical reasons. It would reduce entries, lengthen queue times and overturn a centuries-old policy, the report concluded.
“Britain holds its national collections for the world — not just its own residents,” it said.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS