The cost of art

When it comes to applying foreigner fee at monuments and museums, should art have a passport rider?

- VAISHALI DAR

A VISIT TO a museum is a universal experience — stand before a painting, connect with a story larger than yourself. However, this experience depends not just on curiosity, but on citizenship as well.

Recently, the Louvre museum in Paris announced a price hike for non-Europeans. Any adult visitor from outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will have to pay 32 euros ($37) instead of 22 euros ($26), almost a 45% increase, to enter the Louvre.

For Americans, UK citizens and Chinese nationals, who are some of the museum’s most numerous foreign visitors, will be among those affected and so will tourists from other countries. This incident has reignited a global debate: should culture have different prices for insiders and outsiders. The phenomenon is common in many countries, with tariffs at sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the Taj Mahal in India varying for nationalities.

Critics, however, accused France of cultural gatekeeping, arguing that art, especially art housed in state-funded institutions, belongs to humanity, not passports. French academic Patrick Poncet has drawn a parallel between France’s move and the policies of US President Donald Trump, whose administration hiked the cost of visiting US National Parks for foreign tourists by $100 on January 1.

Supporters, on the other hand, were pragmatic. French taxpayers bankroll the Louvre year after year; why shouldn’t visitors who contribute nothing to that system pay more? This comes at the time of budget deficits and over-tourism when governments are hunting for creative revenue streams, and dual pricing is an easy option.