A report published Tuesday, June 21, highlights the lack of consistency in the financing of the protection of remarkable works.
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It is a pillar of French cultural policy that the Court of Auditors has just tackled. Rue Cambon published, Tuesday, June 21, a report entitled “State policy in favor of the monumental heritage”. After that, very critical, that the financial magistrates rendered on the missions of the Ministry of Culture in December 2021, the latter question, this time, the coherence of the actions which affect the protection of the remarkable works of the territory. And their observation is not tender: to read them, the French heritage resembles a bathtub running away.
The fire that ravaged Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in April 2019, then the one who touched that of Nantes, in July 2020, brutally turned the spotlight on the degraded state of a certain number of national monuments. Building on the emotion born of the ravages caused on these two architectural symbols, Emmanuel Macron had made the protection of heritage sites one of the priorities of his cult action. In fact, the president had instilled a new dynamic with the creation of the Heritage Mission, entrusted to Stéphane Bern, who, in four years, allowed the restoration of 627 monuments, in particular thanks to the specific lotto set up by the host of television. The recovery plan, following the COVVI-19 epidemic, also devoted 614 million to historic monuments.
“Global expenditure is badly understood”
The financial effort carried out over the past three years is also praised by the court magistrates: it went from 600 million euros in 2020 to 1.2 billion, to which is added the half billion devoted by local communities. Nevertheless, they immediately put a downside: “the overall expenditure is poorly understood”, denounces the report. Clearly, the Ministry of Culture has no precise vision on the way in which these sums are spent, because there are no budgetary documents to draw them. In addition, work is taken care of by other ministries (including that of defense) and by local communities, without really knowing how to assess them.
Another size criticism, on the alarming state of heritage: almost a quarter (23.3 %) of the 44,540 buildings covered by a protective measure is in “a worrying state”: safety problems, serious Degradations, faulty electrical installations … The money unlocked for three years having been concentrated on large national buildings, hundreds of cathedrals, castles, manors or other old stones are declared in poor condition or in danger, points the report. This is the case of the cathedrals of Clermont-Ferrand, Moulins, Beauvais or Amiens. The Abbey of Clairvaux, the Haras du Pin, and the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild also await works.
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