Political Issues of the Louvre’s Internationalisation

Abstract

This article focuses on the internationalisation of the Louvre since the 2000s. The Louvre is a major Heritage of the French Culture. With the British Museum in London, it is one of the most important universal Museums in the world. The French State, through successive governments, has mobilised the Louvre, that is, the institution, as an intermediary in international agreements. This museum and cultural institution then become a real stakeholder in international relations. Thus, we want to analyse issues and controversies surrounding the close relationship between the Louvre and the French State. The Louvre, a renowned French museum and heritage site, is now multi-spatial. This model responds in part to a request to the French Government to perfect the interplay of international influence. The Louvre's internationalisation is thus understood not as the Louvre's reputation on the international level, but as the use of this heritage in the international political strategies. By approaching this case in French international relations, we can, first of all, question the stakes of the transition from heritage to national branding. In other words, to understand how in contemporary literature, heritage is transformed not only as a tool to retrace the past of a society but also how it becomes an emblem that can be mobilised by states to claim a form of legitimacy from other states. The method bases essentially on interviews conducted within the framework of these. And it aims to answer two questions. What does the deterritorialisation of national heritage such as the Louvre produce in international relations at the Louvre's scale, the city of Abu Dhabi and in relations between France and the United Arab Emirates, then the impact that the Louvre Abu Dhabi can have at the local and regional level.