Tourists visiting the Louvre Museum in Paris already have to cope with long entry lines, overcrowded galleries and, occasionally, robbers stealing masterpieces from its halls.
Now, some also face a sharp jump in ticket prices.
On Thursday, the Louvre’s board agreed to increase prices by 45 percent for visitors outside the European Economic Area, including Americans, as part of efforts to raise funds to overhaul the beleaguered institution.
From Jan. 14, those tourists will pay 32 euros, about $37 — instead of €22, or $25 — to roam the Louvre’s halls and admire the Mona Lisa. Visitors from Britain and Russia will pay more, too, as they are not part of the European Economic Area, which includes countries in the European Union as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
A spokesman for the Louvre confirmed the change in an email.
The museum is still on the mend after thieves broke into one of its galleries in October and stole about $100 million worth of jewelry. That brazen robbery, which took place in broad daylight while the museum was open, highlighted the Louvre’s security weaknesses and decaying infrastructure.
In January, President Emmanuel Macron of France and the Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, announced a plan to overhaul the museum, called “Louvre — New Renaissance.” including moving the Mona Lisa to a new exhibition space to deal with overcrowding.
The plan also aims to improve security and renovate the building’s hundreds of rooms, with their leaking roofs and broken heating and cooling systems.
Yet, that plan will cost about €1.1 billion, or $1.3 billion, according to the Cour des Comptes, France’s highest-level auditing institution, which released details in a scathing audit of the project published this month. The change in ticket prices is expected to raise up to €20 million, or $23 million, per year to help, the museum’s spokesman said.
The Louvre is not the only French museum struggling to work out how to pay for upgrades in infrastructure. Emilie Girard, president of the French branch of the International Council of Museums, a body that represents museums, said in an interview that all museums in the country were “at a crossroads” because of rising costs and that they had to decide whether to charge visitors more or save money through other measures such as “cutting opening hours.” There were no easy answers, Ms. Girard added.
The idea to charge some international visitors more to visit France’s greatest cultural attractions was first suggested over a year ago by Rachida Dati, France’s culture minister, in an interview with Le Figaro, a French daily newspaper.
“Is it normal for example, for a French visitor to pay the same price for admission to the Louvre as a Brazilian or Chinese visitor?” she asked. “The French are not expected to pay for everything on their own.”
About a quarter of the Louvre’s visitors are French, while the rest come from around the world — mainly the United States, China and other European countries. It attracted 8.7 million visitors in 2024, according to a statement released in January, of which 77 percent were foreigners.
To some American museumgoers, the idea of out-of-town visitors paying more for museum entry may seem fair. The Metropolitan Museum of New York, for instance, allows New York residents to pay what they want for tickets, skipping the regular $30 charge. And this week, the Trump administration announced that from Jan. 1, foreign tourists will pay a $100 surcharge to visit the country’s most popular national parks.
Yet, in France, the idea of tiered pricing has caused a stir, with unions coming out against the plan. The Louvre section of the C.F.D.T.-Culture labor union said in a statement that the decision was “shocking.”
The Louvre was creating an “absurd and unjust” situation where, for instance, “people from the Middle East will pay a higher price to access foundational and symbolic works of their own culture” than French visitors do, the union’s statement added. “The very public you are targeting will experience this as discrimination.”
A spokesman for the C.G.T., another labor union that represents Louvre workers, said in a statement that it was also against the changes to ticket prices, saying that it was part of a “commodification of culture” and that it was not up to foreign visitors to “wash away” the Louvre’s many problems, including safety issues.
The Louvre is not the only museum expected to introduce tiered pricing in January. The Palace of Versailles, the Palais Garnier opera house and the Château de Chambord, a Renaissance-era castle in the Loire, are among the attractions that this year have explored raising the price of some of their tickets for targeted international visitors.
A spokeswoman for the Palace of Versailles said in an email that, from Jan. 14, non-European visitors would pay €3 euros, or $3.4, more per ticket than European visitors. A ticket giving access to the whole palace and its grounds during the summer high season, for instance, would cost €35, or $40, up from €32.
The other attractions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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