Louvre is closing earlier to reduce high energy costs

Paris - The Louvre Museum has joined the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Palace of Versailles by turning off its lights earlier as part of the French government's energy-saving initiative. This was reported by the website The Art Newspaper. The famous glass pyramid of the Louvre Museum located in the main courtyard, which serves as the main entrance, will now turn off its lights at 11:00 PM instead of 1:00 AM, said French Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak, who discussed the energy crisis with the France 2 television station.

The new lighting restriction for the famous pyramid, designed by the late American architect of Chinese descent Ieoh Ming Pei, went into effect last Saturday. The Palace of Versailles is also trying to reduce rapidly rising energy costs: it will turn off its lights at 10:00 PM instead of the original 11:00 PM. The goal of this move is to reduce the rapidly rising energy costs due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Abdul-Malak called on other cultural institutions to save energy following the example of the Paris museum Musée d'Orsay, which "reduced energy consumption by a third simply by changing light bulbs and switching to LED technology." A spokesperson for the museum told the paper that the institution has seen a 15 percent reduction in consumption over the past eight months.

Earlier this month, the Paris city hall announced that the 20,000 light bulbs on the Eiffel Tower will be turned off a quarter of an hour earlier than usual, at 11:45 PM. "It is a very symbolic gesture that is part of the growing awareness of energy sobriety," said SETE managing company director Jean-François Martins to The Guardian.

The new restrictions will also apply to landmarks in other French cities. In Marseille, the lighting of the 19th-century Pharo Palace will be dimmed earlier each day starting at the end of September.