Lens Mayor Sylvain Robert Defends Louvre-Lens Model Amid Financial Pressures

Sylvain Robert, the socialist mayor of Lens since 2013, discusses the cultural strategy of the post-mining city centered on the Louvre-Lens museum. The museum attracts nearly 500,000 visitors annually but struggles to revitalize the city center. Robert outlines a €2 million annual cultural budget (4% of total), plans for a museum of mining and Lens history in a deconsecrated round church built by miners, and a €27 million surplus from 2022-2026 partly funding a 5% tax cut and €10 million for town square restructuring. He notes the Louvre-Lens operating budget is about €1 million from the agglomeration (10%), with 80% from the region, 10% from the department. Robert confirms regional president Xavier Bertrand's commitment to keep the Galerie du Temps free. He acknowledges the museum's limited economic spillover, with traditional retail struggling post-Covid, and rules out a tramway project as too costly. The interview is part of Le Journal des Arts' series on local cultural development.