The time has come to rethink museums

The Louvre is the most visited museum and one of the most important in the world. Every year, on the rive droite, in the first Arrondissement, about 8 million people pass through the Hall Napoléon to admire art that spans centuries of human history. However, when it was renovated in the 1980s, the museum was designed to accommodate only 4 million visitors per year, less than half the current number. For this reason, as Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, stated in an interview with the Guardian, «visiting the museum has become a ‘physical ordeal’ due to the crowds of tourists.» There are many issues: too many people, few resting areas, insufficient restrooms, and outdated signage. It is also a serious safety concern, as emphasized by numerous visitors interviewed by the Guardian, who said that «it feels like the staff are there more to guide people than to protect the paintings.»

This situation led French President Emmanuel Macron to announce that a special ticket will be introduced for the Mona Lisa, with a dedicated entrance, while the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati has decided to increase ticket prices for non-EU visitors. Naturally, it is not just a matter of money, since there is no shortage of funds to restore and make the Louvre more accessible: while the museum has financed major international projects – such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Lens mining center – the main site has not undergone significant structural revision in decades, thus contributing to the current confusion. Unfortunately, the Louvre is not the only museum facing difficult situations. The museum sector was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the recovery has not been the same for everyone. Some museums experienced a real “rebound effect” in visits, but this brought organizational and structural problems similar to those of the Louvre.

An example is the Uffizi, which in 2023 reached 5 million visitors, becoming the most visited museum in Italy. A remarkable number that nevertheless caused considerable inconvenience to the city, already overwhelmed by overtourism, and to the visitors themselves, forced to endure long lines and poor organization. To address the issue, the new director of the Gallery, Simone Verde, introduced evening openings exclusively for Florence residents. In addition, tickets and brochures have been digitized, an initiative already launched during Eike Schmidt’s tenure, to make visits smoother and more accessible thanks to online bookings. The Vatican Museums, second only to the Louvre with 6 million visitors per year, are also struggling with the problem of overtourism. However, director Barbara Jatta has a different opinion on the matter. As reported by La Repubblica, Jatta believes that «overtourism is not a curse.» For her, large tourist flows are not just a problem, but an opportunity, and the enjoyment of art is primarily through tourists. «We must be aware that it is no longer an elite dealing with art, history, and our heritage. And we must act accordingly,» said Jatta. Therefore, the great waves of tourism must be regulated, with extended opening hours and new routes created thanks to collaboration between IT experts, hospitality technicians, and museum managers.

These issues of overcrowding and management raise questions about the true role of museums today: are they still institutions dedicated to knowledge and art, or are they becoming merely amusement parks where artworks are displayed only to be photographed? Mark Fisher, an English philosopher, addresses this issue in his essay Capitalist Realism. According to the author, the problem lies within the museum itself and in the way artworks are archived in institutionalized spaces. Fisher states that «Picasso’s Guernica – once a cry of pain against fascist atrocities – is now just another painting to hang on a wall [and] the painting can aspire to iconic status only if stripped of any context or function.» When placed in a capitalist context, like ours, the museum does not ‘produce’ anything new; instead, it ends up failing to even truly preserve the past. «A culture that merely preserves itself is not a culture,» adds the philosopher. Walking through a museum, along corridors housing thousands of works from every corner of the world and every era, is like walking through a Predator spaceship, where thousands of objects are «stripped of all vitality» and arranged for the consumer-spectator.

Today, as Fisher writes, we are in the midst of a «cosmopolitan carnival of gods, costumes, and arts [in which] the cheerful and wandering spectator» has replaced participation and engagement with an aseptic reception of the product. The museum as a place for preserving artworks remains essential, but in 2025, facing countless problems arising from the commodification of artworks and the museum itself, we must rethink the space. The museum must not only preserve and display art, but also encourage creative renewal, so as not to risk becoming a huge warehouse with endless lines of visitor-warehousemen, as Fisher feared.