当艺术杰作遇上参观者大潮

PARIS — One cloudy afternoon this month, the line to enter the Louvre stretched around the entrance pyramid, across one long courtyard and into the next. Inside the museum, a crowd more than a dozen deep faced the Mona Lisa, most taking cellphone pictures and selfies. Near the "Winged Victory of Samothrace," Jean-Michel Borda, visiting from Madrid, paused amid the crush. "It's like the Métro early in the morning," he said.

巴黎——本月的一个多云的下午，等待进入卢浮宫的长队在金字塔入口绕了一圈，穿过长长的天井，排到了下一个入口处。在博物馆里，几十个人面对着《蒙娜丽莎》(Mona Lisa)，大多在用手机拍照或自拍。在《萨莫色雷斯的胜利女神》(Winged Victory of Samothrace)附近，来自马德里的让-米切尔·博尔达(Jean-Michel Borda)在拥挤的人群中停下了。“这像是早高峰时的地铁，”他说。

It is the height of summer, and millions of visitors are flocking to the Louvre — the busiest art museum in the world, with 9.3 million visitors last year — and to other great museums across Europe. Every year the numbers grow as new middle classes emerge, especially in Asia and Eastern Europe. Last summer the British Museum had record attendance, and for 2013 as a whole it had 6.7 million visitors, making it the world's second-most-visited art museum, according to The Art Newspaper. Attendance at the Uffizi in Florence for the first half of the year is up almost 5 percent over last year.

这是夏季的高峰期，成百上千万游客涌入卢浮宫和欧洲的其他著名博物馆。卢浮宫是世界上最繁忙的艺术博物馆，去年接待游客930万人次。随着新中产阶级的涌现——特别是在亚洲和东欧——游客人数每年都在增加。据《艺术报》(The Art Newspaper)说，去年夏天大英博物馆(British Museum)的游客人数打破了记录，2013年全年接待游客670万人次，成为世界上第二大被参观最多的艺术博物馆。佛罗伦萨的乌菲齐美术馆(Uffizi)今年上半年的参观人数比去年增长了差不多5%。

Seeing masterpieces may be a soul-nourishing cultural rite of passage, but soaring attendance has turned many museums into crowded, sauna-like spaces, forcing institutions to debate how to balance accessibility with art preservation.

欣赏名作也许是能滋养灵魂的文化行为，但是急剧上涨的参观人数把很多博物馆变成了拥挤的、桑拿室般的地方，迫使博物馆开始讨论如何在保证游客参观与保护艺术品之间达到平衡。

In recent years, museums have started doing more to manage the crowds. Most offer timed tickets. Others are extending their hours. To protect the art, some are putting in new air-conditioning systems. Still, some critics say that they're not doing enough.

近些年，博物馆开始更加注意控制游客人数。大多是发放限时门票。也有的是延长开放时间。为了保护艺术品，有些博物馆安装了新的空调系统。不过，有些批评家说他们做得还不够。

Last year, the Vatican Museums had a record 5.5 million visitors. This year, thanks to the popularity of Pope Francis, officials expect that to rise to 6 million. The Vatican is installing a new climate-control system in the Sistine Chapel to help spare Michelangelo's frescoes the humidity generated by the 2,000 people who fill the space at any given time, recently as many as 22,000 a day. The Vatican hopes to have it finished by October.

去年，梵蒂冈博物馆(Vatican Museums)接待游客550万人次，打破了自己的记录。今年，由于方济各教皇(Pope Francis)很受欢迎，官方预测游客人数将上升至600万人次。梵蒂冈正在西斯廷教堂(Sistine Chapel)安装一个新的气候控制系统，以帮助化解游客带来的湿度，保护米开朗基罗(Michelangelo)的壁画。该教堂开放期间每时每刻都挤满了2000名游客，最近每天的游客达22000名。梵蒂冈希望能在10月底前完成这一系统的安装。

In a telephone interview, Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums, said his institution was in a bind: To safeguard the frescoes, attendance should not be allowed to increase, he said, but "the Sistine Chapel has a symbolic, religious value for Catholics and we can't set a cap."

在电话采访中，梵蒂冈博物馆的馆长安东尼奥·帕鲁奇(Antonio Paolucci)说他的机构陷入了两难境地：为了保护壁画，不能再增加参观人数了，但是“西斯廷教堂对天主教徒来说具有象征性的宗教意义，我们也不能设上限。”

Museums generally don't like keeping a lid on attendance. At the Hermitage, which had 3.1 million visitors last year, the only cap on the number of visitors is "the physical limitations of the space itself, or the number of hangers in the coat room during the winter," said Nina V. Silanteva, the head of the museum's visitor services department.

博物馆一般不喜欢给参观人数设立上限。埃米塔日博物馆(Hermitage)去年的参观人数达310万人次。该博物馆游客服务部的主管尼娜·V·斯兰特瓦(Nina V. Silanteva)说，对游客人数的唯一限制是“博物馆本身的空间或冬天衣帽间里衣架的个数”。

Ms. Silanteva said the goal was to make the museum accessible to as many people as possible, but she conceded that the crowds pose problems. "Such a colossal number of simultaneous viewers isn't good for the art, and it can be uncomfortable and overwhelming for those who come to see the art," she said. "Thankfully nothing bad has happened, and God has saved us from any mishaps."

斯兰特瓦说目标是让尽可能多的人能参观博物馆，但是她承认人多确实带来了一些问题。“这么多人同时参观不利于艺术品，来观看艺术品的人也会感觉不舒服，受不了，”她说，“幸好没发生什么糟糕的事情，上帝保佑我们免于灾祸。”

Sometimes, mishaps do occur. Because of crowds, the Townley Venus in the British Museum, a first- to second-century Roman statue with an outstretched arm, has had its fingers knocked off a few times in recent years.

有时的确发生了灾祸。因为人多，大英博物馆的汤利维纳斯(Townley Venus)的手指最近几年被撞掉了好几次。汤利维纳斯是1世纪至2世纪的罗马雕塑，有伸出来的手臂。

Even when the art is secure, the experience can become irksome. Patricia Rucidlo, a guide in Florence for Context Travel, said that visiting the Accademia, famous for Michelangelo's "David," had become "a nightmare" this year because visitors are now allowed to take photos. "People now swarm the paintings, step on anyone to get to them, push, shove, snap a photo, and move quickly on without looking at the painting," she wrote in an email message.

即使艺术品没有遭到破坏，参观体验也变得令人厌烦。帕特丽夏·卢西德罗(Patricia Rucidlo)是佛罗伦萨环境旅行社(Context Travel)的导游，她说今年参观学院美术馆(Accademia)简直是“做噩梦”，因为现在游客被允许拍照。该博物馆因米开朗基罗的《大卫》(David)而闻名。“人们现在挤到所有绘画周围，不管踩着什么人都要往前挤，推推搡搡，拍一张照片，赶紧往前走，看都没看画作一眼，”她在电子邮件中说。

Lines outside the Uffizi in Florence, which had 1.9 million visitors last year, are famed for their length, and the courtyard is filled with people scalping timed tickets. (A private company handles ticketing at the Uffizi and keeps 14 percent of the ticket price.) The museum says that it caps the number of visitors at 980 people at a time, to meet fire codes.

佛罗伦萨乌菲齐美术馆去年接待游客190万人次，博物馆外的队伍长得出了名，院子里挤满了倒卖限时门票的人（一家私人公司负责乌菲齐的票务，赚取门票费的14%）。博物馆说为了达到防火规定，它限制同时参观的游客人数不超过980人。

But earlier this year, some staff members warned that the museum had been letting in far more people than allowed, putting the artwork at risk. Tomaso Montanari, an art historian in Florence and professor at the Federico II University in Naples, has been strongly critical of crowding at the Uffizi, which is considerably smaller than other major museums. "It seems like a tropical greenhouse — you can't breathe," he said in a telephone interview. "If a cinema has 100 places, you can't let in 300 people. If there's a fire, it's a tragedy."

但是今年早些时候，一些员工警告说，该博物馆允许进入的游客人数远远超过了这个数字，置艺术品于险境。该博物馆比其他主要博物馆要小得多。佛罗伦萨的艺术史学家、那不勒斯费德里科二世大学(Federico II University)的教授托马索·蒙塔纳里(Tomaso Montanari)对乌菲齐博物馆的拥挤强烈不满。“它像个热带温室——你在里面无法呼吸，”他在电话采访中说，“如果一个影院有100个座位，你就不应该让300个人进来。如果失火了，那就是灾难。”

Marco Ferri, a spokesman for the Uffizi, said the museum has been under renovation since 2006 but that some rooms have not yet been upgraded with climate control. "In the next two years, everything will be modernized," he said.

乌菲齐博物馆的发言人马尔科·费里(Marco Ferri)说该博物馆从2006年开始整修，但是有些房间没有升级安装气候控制系统。“未来两年，一切都将现代化，”他说。

The Louvre, Uffizi, Vatican, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Prado in Madrid all offer timed tickets for sale, allowing visitors to avoid lines. Even museums that don't charge admission to their permanent collections, like the British Museum and the National Gallery in London, have special exhibitions that require paying tickets. During the National Gallery's Leonardo da Vinci blockbuster in 2011, websites were reselling $25 tickets for as much as $400.

卢浮宫、乌菲齐博物馆、梵蒂冈博物馆、阿姆斯特丹国立博物馆(Rijksmuseum)和马德里的普拉多博物馆(Prado)都销售限时门票，让游客可以免于排队。甚至连那些对自己的永久藏品不收门票的博物馆，比如大英博物馆和伦敦的国家美术馆(National Gallery)，也开设需要支付门票的特别展览。2011年伦敦国家美术馆举办轰动的莱昂纳多·达芬奇(Leonardo da Vinci)展期间，有人在网上以400美元的价格转售25美元的门票。

While most museums are closed at least one day a week, in 2012 the Prado moved to a seven-day-a-week schedule and extended its hours until 8 p.m. on weekdays. That followed a redesign in 2007 by the architect Rafael Moneo that improved the circulation at the museum, making it easier to see masterpieces by Velázquez and Goya.

大多数博物馆每周至少闭馆一天，但是普拉多博物馆2012年起改为一周开放七天，工作日的开放时间延长至晚上8点。2007年建筑师拉斐尔·莫尼奥(Rafael Moneo)重新设计了该博物馆，提高了人群的流动性，让人们更容易看到委拉斯开兹(Velázquez)和戈雅(Goya)的杰作。

At every museum, people do find ways to circumvent the lines, going to the Louvre on Wednesday and Friday evenings when the museum is open until 9:45 p.m., finding less-trafficked entrances or even paying for an annual membership that allows priority access.

在每个博物馆，人们确实也找到一些避开长队的方法，例如，在周三和周五晚上去卢浮宫，因为那两天博物馆开放至晚上9点45分；寻找人不太多的入口；甚至购买年度会员卡，以获得优先进入权。

Last fall the Louvre closed for a day after guards went on strike to protest increasingly aggressive gangs of pickpockets in the galleries. Since then security has been increased and the number of pickpocketing incidents has dropped 75 percent, a museum spokeswoman said.

去年秋天，卢浮宫闭馆一天，因为保安们罢工抗议展馆内越来越猖狂的扒窃团伙。该博物馆的一位发言人说，从那以后，安保措施加强了，扒窃案件降低了75%。

Standing in a long line next to I. M. Pei's entrance pyramid, Manu Srivastan, 46, from Jabalpur, India, said he had come with his wife, father and daughters. They had been waiting for about 45 minutes, with 15 more to go, but they didn't mind. "It's a wonderful learning experience," he said of the Louvre. "You're always left wanting more."

来自印度贾巴尔普尔的46岁的马努·斯里瓦斯坦(Manu Srivastan)站在贝聿铭设计的金字塔入口的长队中，说他是和妻子、父亲和女儿们一起来的。他们已经等了大约45分钟，还得再等15分钟，但是他们不介意。“它是绝妙的学习体验，”他提到卢浮宫时说，“你总是想学习更多。”