The Louvre Abu Dhabi has he stolen from his counterpart in paris? Le Canard Enchaîné in its edition of Wednesday, reveals that Jean-Yves Le Drian, minister of foreign Affairs, and Franck Riester, the minister of Culture, received a letter alarming on 14 may, sent by the prosecutor general of the Court, Gilles Johanet – since retired. Entitled «license agreement between the Louvre and the government of the united arab Emirates», the eight-page document denounces the improper use by the museum émirien the name of the biggest museum in the world, that «lèse clearly the financial interests of the Louvre [paris]».
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Le Canard Enchaîné raises a first question: how is it that the agreement, originally written in 2007, has been ratified only eleven years after? Eleven years during which the great parisian museum has not received any of the royalties that the «license agreement» required for each operation of the name «Louvre museum» as applied to «commercial products», in the words of the prosecutor.
all that between 2007 and 2018, the terms of the agreement, signed for 30 years, have evolved, » says Gilles Johanet. Initially, a minimum of 8% of each of the commercial farms had to be paid to the parisian museum. A fee that has dropped to 8%… maximum in the final contract. A text that has «not been subject to the prior approval of the board of directors,» continues the prosecutor, which is an irregularity in respect of the internal rules of the institution.»
juicy «communication operation»
Without the Louvre in paris has been informed, a partnership that we imagine juicy was launched by the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Etihad, the national airline. She was able to use the mark and the image of the Louvre émirien on its aircraft, tickets and boarding passes. For any rationale, the united arab Emirates have ensured that such an action was not part of the agreement, but a «communication operation» made possible by the package of 400 million euros that reverse the gulf countries over 15 years to be able to use the brand, non commercial use.
To be sure, the parisian institution has requested to read the contract between the company and the museum, which was refused to him. The prosecutor regrets that, by the result, «the leaders of the public institution [the Louvre] should be waived to settle the dispute».
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And the story does not stop there. In 2017, an agreement on a worldwide poster campaign in anticipation of the opening of the museum of Abu Dhabi would have been passed only verbally, according to the former prosecutor. Scandalized by this situation, the ex-prosecutor of the Court of accounts advised the ministers to attack the license agreement to 2018 with the Louvre Abu Dhabi before the courts and renegotiate it. «We are waiting for the official release of the report of the Court of accounts. The Louvre had provided answers to all of these questions,» says his side the paris hotel. The government has a period of two months to provide answers to the Court of auditors.
