Le spleen d’Apollon

Didier Rykner became known after hosting on his latribunedelart.com website a petition against the Louvre Abou Dhabi, with a great response in the media. A real teaser, ready to taunt our museums for their commercial excesses and their lack of respect for their basic code of ethics (conserve, exhibit, restore), he expresses his thoughts in this little pamphlet. The control by the public administration at the cost of the curators who are put on the sidelines, works of art sent in all directions without worrying if they are fragile, an obsession with the temporary event at the cost of the permanent collections… The ills are known and it is sometimes very efficient to denounce them, for example in the case of Versailles with its plastic gold chandeliers, its Pharaonic style bleachers that ruin the park and its real-false royal gates. One is ready to follow the dualist in a great number of his conclusions. With one exception: if the museums can no longer dispose of their property, nor lend on the long term, nor send their collections wherever, where can they find new sources of financing? The author does not give any ideas for the future.

• Le spleen d’Apollon by Didier Rykner, éditions Nicolas Chaudun, 2008, 144 p., 15 €, ISBN : 978-2-35039-051-2