September 10 Strikes Temporarily Shutter French Museums
291Sept. 13, 2025
Several art museums and monuments in France were forced to close to the public on September 10 owing to the nationwide strike over proposed spending cuts. The “Bloquons Tout” (Let’s Block Everything) movement arose in response to a budget package put forth by then-prime minister François Bayrou this past July that would have reduced the country’s fiscal deficit by roughly €44 billion (about $51.5 billion) via austerity measures including the freezing of pension and welfare payments at 2025 amounts and the cancellation of two public holidays. The protest effort took place on new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu’s first day in office; he had beenappointed to the role only a day earlierby President Emmanuel Macron after Bayrou received a vote of no confidence on September 8 and the government collapsed.
Among the institutions and landmarks affected were the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Louvre, the Musée Delacroix, the Musée d’Orsay, the Panthéon, and the Arc de Triomphe, all in Paris. The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris closed completely,Hyperallergicreports, as did the Musée Delacroix, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Arc de Triomphe, perArtNews, and the Panthéon, per travel websiteSortir a Paris.The Louvre remained open, but closed some sections to visitors. A few blocks north, protesters blocked the entrance to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the country’s national library and museum, while historic sites including the Place de la République and the Fontaine du Palmier in the Place du Châtelet teemed with demonstrators.
Just outside Paris, the castle, gardens, and park of the Château de Versailles remained open, while the Trianon Estate and gardens were closed. In the south of France, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon shuttered portions of its building, French daily Libération reported.