WGBA -Some main Paris museums closed due to strike

Some main Paris museums closed due to strike

By JENNY BARCHFIELD
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) - On a gray, drizzly day just made for a Paris museum visit, the city's premier art institutions were hit by strikes that left tourists out in the cold and had some French people worried about the image their country projects to foreigners.

The Pompidou Center modern art museum and the Musee d'Orsay, with its famed paintings by the Impressionists,were closed Wednesday after workers angry about a government cost-cutting measure voted to strike.

Workers at the Louvre, the crown jewel of Paris museums, also voted to strike, but by mid-morning parts of the sprawling complex had been opened to visitors. The museum reduced its €9 ($13.50) to €6 ($9.00) for the day.

Strikers are upset about a government policy of not replacing half of retiring public servants, which they insist will prove catastropic for the country's national museums.

Union officials said the Rodin Museum, dedicated to French sculptor Auguste Rodin, the Arc de Triomphe and the Palais de Versailles, the sumptuous former royal palace west of Paris, were also affected by the strike.

Washington D.C. native Ali Dart said she was surprised to learn of the partial work stoppage at the Louvre and she still hoped to be able to see museum's star pieces - like the "Venus de Milo" statue and Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."

"If we can't see them, it'd really cramp our style," said Dart, who runs an arts and crafts supply store and was visiting the French capital for the first time. Asked whether the strike would cloud her vision of France and make her less likely to return, Dart responded: "There are plenty of other countries to visit."

Standing outside the Musee d'Orsay under a persistent drizzle, Jean-Claude Martin and a friend scrambled to make a new plan for the day.

"When you have your heart set on seeing an exhibit, it's quite annoying to find the museum closed," said Martin, a doctor from the eastern French city of Strasbourg. "But ultimately for us, it's okay because we can come another time. For the foreign tourists, though, it's another story."

"It's always a bit worrisome for France's image that museums and monuments go on strike because that's the idea that people from around the world take home," said Martin - adding that he "of course" understood the strikers' motivations.

In an open letter to French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, Joseph Thouvenel of the Pompidou's CFDT union said "not giving the Pompidou Center the means to fulfill its mission means allowing consumer culture to suffocate a bit more the capital's identity."

Strikers planned to stage a protest outside the Culture Ministry later Wednesday, and labor representatives were scheduled to meet with Mitterrand, union officials said.

The strike started at the Pompidou - known for its hallmark plastic-tube-covered building - on Nov. 23. Strikers contend the policy of not replacing one of two retiring workers will prove especially adverse at the Pompidou, where roughly 40 percent of workers are over 50.

A museum official said the Pompidou recieves the lion's share of its funding from the state and relies on entrance fees for about 10-15 percent of its total budget. The museum usually receives 5,000 to 8,000 visitors a day, said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the dispute.

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Associated Press writer Jean-Marie Godard in Paris contributed to this report.

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