Culture Clash: Paris’s Museum Strike
December 3, 2009 | Laura Carroll
A sight in and of itself: Striking employees protest recent government decisions in front of the Louvre (Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images)
Those considering visiting one of Paris’s several world-renowned museums may be disappointed – the city of lights is seeing one prominent institution after another turn off its own.
Employees of the Pompidou Center went on strike just over a week ago, after the government decided to replace only half of the city’s retiring civil servants and to cut certain cultural subsidies – budgetary moves that will leave museums with less funding and drastically fewer employees. The Pompidou has since been joined by several other institutions, including the Palace of Versailles, the Rodin Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, and as of today The Louvre – the world’s most visited museum.
A vote is held amongst the strikers every morning on whether they will continue to strike for another day, according to the Associated Press.
