12/11/25 Museum - Paris, Musée du Louvre - The document entitled “Performance Contract 2025–2029 of the Public Establishment of the Musée du Louvre”, which we quoted in our previous article on the Louvre, is also worth consulting for at least one other point: “the opening rate of openable rooms”, indicator 18 (required by the Ministry of Culture) included in axis 4: “Adapting the museum’s resources, means, and operations”.
We have, in fact, on several occasions, pointed out the museum’s incessant lies regarding security. The one about room openings may be even bigger — and more obvious. We learn that the 2024 target was to have 94% of rooms open, and more than 95% at weekends. And the results are as follows: “For the years 2022–2024, the indicator measuring the opening rate of openable rooms was met in 2022 and 2023 with a rate equal to or greater than 92%, and not met in 2024 with a rate of 93.3% (with a highly ambitious target of 94% for the year 2024)”.
The Louvre is therefore mocking both the ministry — which requests this monitoring — and its visitors. For whether 92 or 94%, these figures are completely false, as regular visitors to the museum know. Not only are entire sections of the Louvre closed every day — closures that are set out in the POG, the “Guaranteed Opening Plan” — but even these “guaranteed openings” are not, since many rooms supposed to be open are in fact closed.
On Monday 27 October last, in addition to the rooms closed as indicated in the POG (ill. 1), numerous rooms were wholly or partly inaccessible in the “districts” [1] of the Cour Khorsabad, Louis XVIII, and Van Dyck/Friedrich in the Richelieu Wing; in the districts of the Cour du Sphinx and Michelangelo in the Denon Wing; and partly closed in the Campana/Charles X district, in the Richelieu Wing.
On Friday 31 October, during the late opening, in addition to the rooms closed as indicated in the POG, the Michelangelo district of the Denon Wing was partly closed; entirely closed were the districts of the Palace of Darius, Arabia/Cyprus and Colonnade in the Sully Wing; and also entirely the districts of the Treasury of Saint-Denis and the Hunts of Maximilian, and partly the Van Dyck/Friedrich district of the Richelieu Wing.
Finally — these are only a few examples — on Monday 3 November the Van Dyck/Friedrich district was partly closed, and the Hunts of Maximilian room was closed until 12.30 p.m.
As we have written several times, the Guaranteed Opening Plans are in reality Guaranteed Closure Plans, and not exhaustive ones.
A question therefore arises: with daily closures ensured, and additional closures added to these, how can one obtain this absurd figure between 92 and 93%?
The calculation is explained on page 50 of the document: the rate equals (N1*N2)(N3*N4), where N1 is the total number of square metres open to the public, N2 the actual number of hours open to the public, N3 the total number of square metres openable to the public, and N4 the theoretical number of opening hours for the public.
It is clear — even without being a mathematician — that the key figure is that of the “square metres openable to the public”. In ordinary French, “openable” means “that can be opened” with guards.
According to the COP 2025–2029 document, rooms “openable to the public” are all the museum’s rooms except those under renovation, closed for the maintenance of collections, climatic constraints, and building or technical issues, as well as rooms temporarily closed as part of the preparation of a temporary exhibition within the collections. Also included are the spaces under the pyramid, which automatically increases the rate of rooms open since exhibitions are by nature always open to the public.
But the rooms closed as indicated on the POG, and those closed in addition to the POG, do not fall under this category. These are “openable” rooms, which could be opened and are closed for no reason other than the lack of guards.
(on remarque que, par rapport à l’illustration 1,
les ouvertures des 13 au 16 novembre ne sont plus «garanties»)
Even if the POG were respected, the rate of open rooms would still be well below 92%, probably closer to 70%. If we add the rooms closed in addition to the POG, it must drop to around 60%. But of course, such a precise calculation is impossible to carry out since we have no data on the closed square metres, day by day. Evidently, neither does the Louvre.
Just as we were about to publish this article, we discovered that the POG has changed format and is now even less clear than before. Until 12 November — that is, today — the POG looked like this (ill. 2). One could at least clearly see the rooms that were closed and those that were “openable” but closed. It could also be noted that the POG valid until 16 November (ill. 1) was now only valid until 12 November (ill. 2).
Now, it looks like this (ill. 3 and 4), and it changes every day (there is not even a distinction between weekdays anymore; it evolves constantly). The “openable” rooms are no longer visible, all closed rooms — for good and bad reasons alike — are greyed out. This will allow even more extensive closures without them being too noticeable. Except to us and our readers. And to the Ministry of Culture, if it finally agrees to understand that the Louvre is making a mockery of it.