Louvre plans to move its storage to location 200 km North of Paris

For some time plans have been underway to move some of the art, stored in the basement of the Louvre to a location, which is not threatened by a centennial flooding of the Seine. Now the plans are to move 250.000 pieces of art to a location 200 km north of Paris

An international group of art historians have united with 42 conservators at the Louvre to prevent this move for the following reasons:

Moving such large amounts of art will necessarily have a cost; some pieces will be ruined, others will be lost even if all care is taken.
It will seriously hamper the constant shifts of which pieces are exhibited and which stored.
The cost of transportation will be a serious impediment.
It will be costly for curators to move back and forth between Liévin in Nord-Pas-Des Calais and Paris, while researching the collections.

Parking Space at Louve at Lens January - afternoon © — Parking Space at Louve at Lens in January 2015 in the afternoon © verdin.j-michel. CC

These arguments seem pertinent, although one wonders to what extent this is also a matter of the conservators being obliged to move themselves and their families to a part of France, which is culturally and economically the least privileged? Liévin is a desolate small town in the middle of what used to be a thriving coal-mining district. However, in 1974 42 miners died in the pits and the mines were finally closed. Since then more than 10% have moved from Liévin. In the last few years this process has accelerated. However, the location of the new conservation centre will be next to the Louvre Satellite in Lens, next door to Liévin, which was especially conceived to boost the cultural life of North-eastern France plus make more of the art hidden in basements and elsewhere available for the public.

Anyone interested in the matter are invited to sign a petition at the internet