The Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, and Other French Museums Close as France Limits Gatherings to 100 People

French museums including the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay
will close on Friday evening until further notice as authorities
step up vigilance to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The
Ministry of Culture has instructed all museums and libraries to
either cap attendance at 100 people or close to the public.

In recent weeks, French museums had previously limited
attendance to 1,000 people at a time—but on Friday, that number
dropped to 100, making even reduced operations untenable for most
museums.

Those who have already purchased tickets to the Louvre will be
reimbursed. As a result of the closure, the museum has also
postponed two exhibitions, one on the German painter Albrecht
Altdorfer (originally due to open April 23) and another on Italian
Renaissance sculpture titled “The Body and the Soul: From Donatello
to Michelangelo” (originally scheduled for May 6). New dates have
not yet been confirmed.

This isn’t the first time the Louvre has closed in the wake of
the outbreak. The museum shuttered for three
days beginning March 1 after staff voted almost unanimously to
refuse to work over safety fears, which is permitted under French
law.

Following negotiations, museum leadership agreed to provide
workers with small bottles of hand sanitizer and to divert ticket
purchases almost entirely to self-service ticket machines. The
museum also agreed to no longer require guards to navigate the
crowds in front of the Mona Lisa. Since the museum reopened on
March 4 until today, only visitors with pre-booked e-tickets were
guaranteed entry.

Now, however, the doors will close for what is expected to be a
more extended period. France joins a growing number of countries
that have closed their museums (and galleries that have opted to
shut their doors out of an abundance of caution) in order to
prevent the spread of the virus. Countries with widespread
shutdowns include the United States (where museums have taken
measures on a case-by-case basis), Qatar, Germany, Spain,
Poland, and Italy.

Today, however, some good news came from Asia: Museums in
China and South Korea are beginning to reopen
after aggressive lockdowns and quarantine procedures seem to have
have curbed the spread of the disease.

For a comprehensive and consistently updated list of
art-world closures and postponements, click
here. 

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Close as France Limits Gatherings to 100 People appeared first
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