Museum Fever in France

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the 1980s, a wave of construction and renovation swept through the French museum world. It was driven by the need to renovate badly deteriorating museums and a growing awareness of the importance and potential of museums for tourism, economic dynamism, and local prestige. Until the early 1990s, a new museum opened every month, covering an impressive scale of subjects from art and archaeology to salt and combs. The French museum has witnessed many relatively sudden changes, some of them bringing French practice closer to American methods. But change is selective, and the French museum remains typically French. Recent developments are here evaluated in the dual context of the history of French museums and the ways in which they differ from the American style.