Art to tourist rip-offs

DISCRIMINATORY? NON-EU CITIZENS FACE ENTRY FEE TO ICONIC LOUVRE >>>→ Move likened to Trump practices of hiking costs for foreign visitors.

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Should foreign tourists pay more for state-funded galleries than locals, or should art be accessible to all, without discrimination? France is hiking prices for non-Europeans at the Louvre this week, provoking debate over “dual pricing”.

From today, adult visitors from outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will have to pay €32 (about R610) to enter the Louvre, a 45% increase, while the Palace of Versailles will up its prices by €3.

American, British and Chinese nationals, who are some of the museum's most numerous foreign visitors, will be among those affected, as will tourists from poorer countries.

The French move has few precedents elsewhere in Europe, but is more common in developing countries, where tariffs at sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the Taj Mahal in India vary.

Trade unions at the Louvre have denounced the policy as “shocking philosophically, socially and on a human level” and have called for strike action over the change, among other complaints.

They argue that the museum's vast collection of 500000 items, including many from Egypt, the Middle East or Africa, hold universal human value.