Question 13948 — cultural heritage

Summary

Mr. Maxime Michelet draws the attention of the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Space to the critical financial situation of the National Museum of Natural History. The establishment, which manages 13 sites and 2,500 employees, houses more than 68 million specimens. In 2025, it reached a record attendance of 3.6 million visitors and, in 2026, celebrates the 400th anniversary of its creation by King Louis XIII. Rank establishment global, the MNHN nevertheless appears as the poor relation of the scientific and heritage policy of the State. According to its president, the MNHN will require more than 500 million euros over ten years for its emergency renovations alone and more than a billion euros to meet all of its needs. Public establishment of a scientific, cultural and professional nature constituted in the form of a large establishment within the meaning of the article L. 717-1 of the Education Code, the museum suffers from being placed under the joint supervision of the ministers responsible for higher education, the environment and research, the Ministry of Culture also being involved in the management of the collections. Faced with the failure of the State, private sponsorship cannot constitute a structural response to the scale of the museum's needs. At a time when the “Louvre – Nouvelle” project Renaissance", whose financing the Court of Auditors judged to be "fragile to say the least", benefits from a presidential boost to the tune of 1.1 billion euros, it would be legitimate for the national museum of natural history to receive comparable attention and commitment from the public authorities. As the Louvre Museum and countless cases in French museums have demonstrated, the security situation of our heritage becomes critical. The museum itself was the victim, a few weeks before the Louvre, of a burglary of gold nuggets. The security of our heritage requires constant public investments, which the State cannot postpone without taking the risk of irreparable harm for future generations. Consequently, he asks what measures the Government intends to take to guarantee the long-term financing of the renovation work. and security of this French scientific and heritage flagship and if a clarification of the interministerial governance of the establishment is envisaged.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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