The proposed export of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi sparks debate because the opponents were signing a petition that begins to get a hearing. They are 1400, art historians or museum curators, indignant at the project. All signatories remind that the French collections are not for sale. The President of the Louvre said that this style of collaboration is in the air.
France has already sought to export its brainpower. Universities, often through student body, have opened branches in many countries, particularly in Asia. Now, teachers divide their time between their occupations and French education abroad. The education transfer the already remarkable for Abu Dhabi University of Paris Sorbonne opened a branch in the Gulf emirate.
Today, the new heritage projects and this one arouses controversy. Works of art belonging to French museums including the Louvre, will leave the country for a longer or shorter. Some conservatives resent a process outside the scope of the exception. They circulated a petition criticizing the way to “sell” a portion of collections owned by the France. Henri Loyrette, the Louvre’s president, defended himself by stressing that the money these loans to foreign museums, will bring “important” but not “engine operation.
The debate focused on the opening of a branch of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi. Works of art will be loaned for several months in the emirate, some for two years. Regarding the direction of the most prestigious French museum, the Louvre said that the export of works and for some time, his name, until the Emirati authorities organized. It takes time to buy works of art and to find the baptismal name of this new museum.
Given these long-term departures, people signed the petition requesting the continuation of “the integrity of the collections of French museums. These people invested in heritage conservation also denounced the risk of “drift” around these lending long term. There is the Abu Dhabi project, but it is not alone. The petition also criticizes a partnership with the Museum of Atlanta, United States, always with the Louvre. It has loaned 185 works to the High Museum in the capital of Georgia for a period of 11 months. In return, 13 million euros will be paid at the Louvre.
Opponents shouted to the commodification of art. In an interview with French daily Le Monde, Henri Loyrette, the Louvre’s boss, responded by explaining that the money does not drive the action of the Louvre abroad. The chairman of the museum’s most prestigious French said that such cooperation is not new. Several signatories of the petition, when they had the direction of museums have earned money for their school through partnership ventures or through sponsorship.
Henri Loyrette said even in this interview that the internationalization of museums is not a deviation but a commercial phenomenon in the air. Whether the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the British Museum in London or the Guggenheim in New York, many prestigious museums began to pay part of their collections. “The Louvre can not be absent from this movement. There are economic issues, obviously, “said the head of the largest French museum.
Internationalization is trendy
Henri Loyrette’s also called “back lift”: “We have 380 000 works, about 35 000 are on permanent display, and we lend approximately 1500 per year for varying periods. If we hold in our temporary exhibitions like the one that has been devoted recently to Ingres, where all major foreign museums have loaned masterpieces with generosity, we must be generous in return. ”
A French agency, in which major French museums will be represented, will be established in Abu Dhabi. This structure will design the new facility charged with seducing this region. Meanwhile the authorities have done their market, the French museums, on a voluntary basis, will lend works to the latest Middle East. For a sum likely to turn around 500 million euros, Abu Dhabi will have permission to use the name “Louvre” for a specified period.
The Guggenheim Museum will likewise open an office in this wealthy emirate and definitely very interested in Western art. The worst is yet to come, opponents predict that kind of approach and discussing trade works of art. It is unclear whether the controversy will bring French culture in the campaign but already Jack Lang, former culture minister and adviser to Ségolène Royal, supports the approach of the Louvre in the globalization of its heritage.