President of the French Senate, M. Gerard Larcher, announced last summer that he would be putting into motion a planned closure of Paris’s Luxembourg Musuem. The historical museum contracted the company SVO Art, which was responsible for the display of many successful exhibits since 2000.
On January 17, 2010, the Tiffany exhibit that is currently underway, as well as all remaining activities within the museum, will come to an end most likely by early 2011. The museum will reopen with a new tenant. This information was announced yesterday in one of the capital’s most widely read newspapers, Le Parisien.
Despite the fact that the museum has brought in revenues of 637 000 euros in 2008, the Senate is reportedly dissatisfied, and that combined with internal conflicts within SVO Art have led Larcher to look at an alternate use of the space.
The Luxembourg Museum has been the site for many of the most popular exhibits of the last decade, such as Modigliani in 2002-2003 (545 000 visitors), Botticelli in 2003-2004 (507 000 visitors), the Phillips collection in 2005-2006 (452 000 visitors), and Arcimboldo in 2007-2008 (422 000 visitors).
The staff of 25 has since been let go following the Senate’s decision.