Attendance at cinemas and live shows at the start of the year shows a drop of around 25% compared to the same period before the health crisis, said Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot on Sunday.
However, the minister said she expects “a “beautiful festival season”assuring that she was going to continue “to help all who need it”.
In total, nearly 14 billion euros have been mobilized for the world of culture in France since the start of the health crisis, according to new figures from the ministry.
“Everyone recognizes that there is no country that has done as much as France to save its culture”assured Roselyne Bachelot on the show “Children of the Republic” broadcast on Sunday on Radio J.
The artists are “tired, anxious but do not come out washed out” of the crisis. However, she qualifies, “I’m not optimistic at all costs (…) I know that in the cinema, it’s still 25% drop in attendance, in live performance too” at the start of the year, compared to the same period before the Covid-19 crisis.
This figure varies between 20 and 25% depending on the rooms, compared to the same time in 2019, the ministry said. Live performance in particular is witnessing a “phenomenon of bipolarization” according to her : “there are shows that work”with rooms filled, and others where the public is not at the rendezvous.
Restrictions have started to be lifted, such as the maximum capacity for seated audiences set at 2,000 people which ended on February 2 and will be followed by the return of standing concerts on February 16.
“There are scheduling problems because standing concerts are usually international tours. Standing concerts are going to have a harder time getting back to normal than classical concerts”underlined Roselyne Bachelot.
According to the Minister, the world of culture is confronted with both “an extremely harsh pandemic and (…) with the great digital wind, the appearance of the metaverse. It is extremely violent, this double anguish there”.
In addition, the Minister clarified that the table Rosebushes under the trees by Gustav Klimt was “recently rendered” to his heirs.
On January 25, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a law to return 15 works of art, including a painting by Klimt and one by Marc Chagall, to the heirs of Jewish families robbed by the Nazis.
Asked about Eric Zemmour’s attempt “to rehabilitate Pétain, the so-called savior of French Jews”Roselyne Bachelot claimed that the presidential candidate “was no longer in the republican principles”.