30% of US museums will have to close due to Covid19

According to a report by Unesco and the International Council of Museums, one in eight museums in the world could disappear in the years to come (Icom). Following the covid-19 pandemic superimposed on the economic crisis, 85,000 institutions, or 90% of the world's museums, had to close temporarily and 13% of the 1,600 museums audited by Icom announced their final closure while 19.2% did not know if they could continue to function. Nearly 83% of museums will already be forced to make drastic cuts in their budgets, and 30% will reduce their payroll. It should be noted that the number of museums in the world has increased by 60% since 2012 while their operation depended on their attendance and the aid they received. The most affected have been African and Oceanic museums which have not been able to go online while internet access in these regions has remained restricted. In Europe, the Stedelijk and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam lost up to 2.5 million euros per month. In the United States, museum losses totaled 4.5 billion dollars with predictions of up to 6.8 billion for the year 2020, which will undoubtedly lead to the closure of 30% of these institutions. © Adrian Darmon, Le Journal d'un fou d'art