The New Louvre in Lens: A Regionally Embedded National Project

Abstract

The creation of a second Musée du Louvre in Lens, a declining manufacturing city, clearly refers to the prototypical case of the Guggenheim Bilbao. However, this paper shows that the motivation and origin of the Louvre-Lens museum are very different, since it was decided by the central state and primarily funded by the regional authorities with a shared belief in the necessity of bringing art to the working class in a city lacking cultural facilities. This shortcoming made the project highly risky, and its successful implementation can only be explained from a theoretical perspective by various kinds of regional embeddedness. Finally, regarding the impact, even though this project was not directly inspired by the example of Guggenheim Bilbao, a positive effect is hoped for, and the paper aims to assess the possibility of producing the Bilbao effect.