Louvre ends partnership with La Boverie in Liège

The Louvre in Paris will not be renewing its nine-year partnership with La Boverie museum, the city of Liège has confirmed.

The partnership was established in 2016 when La Boverie museum reopened after renovation and expansion, RTBF reports.

The Louvre provided artistic, scientific and scenographic advice and assisted the city of Liège in organising major exhibitions.

The collaboration was renewed in 2020 for a period of five years and was therefore due to run until the end of 2025.

While no reasons were given regarding the decision to not renew the partnership, the Louvre has been considering whether or not to continue its collaborations with numerous museums around the world for the past two years.

But Liège's deputy mayor for culture, Elisabeth Fraipont, said the two museums might still find other ways to share knowledge.

“We had a meeting with the Louvre in mid-September to ask whether or not we would be signing an amendment to this partnership,” Fraipont said.

“The French museum indicated its intention to no longer collaborate on exhibitions with La Boverie, but it has not closed the door to other forms of collaboration, such as training and consulting.”

The city of Liège plans to resume contact with the Louvre once the situation at the Paris museum has calmed down following the spectacular theft it suffered and the repeated strikes and closures of recent months.

In the meantime, the city plans to focus on its own museum collections as part of the 10th anniversary of La Boverie’s reopening.