Facing funding problems for renovations and increased security measures, the Louvre is implementing a new pricing policy starting today, Wednesday, January 14, under which admission for most visitors from countries outside the European Union will increase to 32 euros.
This is a significant increase of 45% overnight, from the previous €22 entrance fee, which has caused intense reactions.
This change affects mainly visitors from countries outside the European Union, including the United States, whose citizens usually make up the largest percentage of the museum’s foreign visitors.
The Louvre received almost 9 million visitors last year, with the majority coming from abroad, specifically more than one-tenth of its visitors coming from the US and about 6% from China.
French trade unions immediately condemned the decision, arguing that it fundamentally undermines the museum’s global mission. According to the revised system, visitors who are not citizens or residents of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, or Norway will be charged the higher rate.
The museum has long faced pressures stemming from the huge number of visitors, aging infrastructure, constant strikes, and increasing security and maintenance costs—challenges common to all of France’s major cultural institutions.
The CGT Culture union denounces the price differentiation, arguing that it turns access to culture into a “commercial product” and promotes unequal access to national heritage. While the Louvre claims that certain groups, such as visitors under 18 and some younger residents of European countries, will still be entitled to free admission, the most recent price increase occurred just in January 2024, when the regular admission ticket rose from 17 euros to 22.
Discussions about increasing ticket prices for visitors from outside the European Union had already begun before the theft on October 19, 2025, which exposed weaknesses and pathologies in security issues and called into question the credibility of the world’s most visited museum as the guardian of the countless works of art it houses, and was approved on November 27.
In addition to the Louvre, visitors will have to pay a higher ticket price starting today at other cultural sites in France – the Château de Chambord, the Palais Garnier, the Conciergerie, and the Sainte-Chapelle.
