June 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy's idea of abolishing entrance fees for French museums is dangerous, said Francoise Cachin, former head of the Musee d'Orsay and of the country's state-run museums.

``He has not weighed the consequences of free admission, and will regret it if he goes ahead,'' Cachin said in an interview in Paris. ``There will be a huge gap that the state will either have to fill directly or by renting out works in exchange for cash.''

``A museum ticket costs less than a movie ticket,'' she added. ``It's perfectly natural for museums to charge.''

In an interview published before his May election -- in the April 13 edition of the arts biweekly ``Le Journal des Arts'' -- Sarkozy said he wished to make state-run museums free. That way, they can ``become frequently visited places'' and ``play a role as a gateway to other cultures.''

``Free entry would allow this, as is the case in the U.K.,'' he said.

Cachin, 71, who ran the Musee d'Orsay between 1986 and 1994 and curated major Gauguin and Seurat exhibitions, said that free admission would be ``as dangerous'' as France's decision to allow an offshoot of the Louvre and other national museums to open in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Lucrative Loans

Louvre Abu Dhabi will bring France almost 1 billion euros over 30 years and see the Louvre and other museums loan some 300 works a year for a decade. The Louvre alone will receive 400 million euros of the total funding over the three decades.

The new museum will be housed in a 24,000 square-meter building, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, on an island that will also feature a new Guggenheim Museum. Cachin has been a vocal critic of Louvre Abu Dhabi, accusing the government of ``selling out'' in a co-signed December article in Le Monde.

The government has responded to critics, including 4,700 online petitioners gathered by Web site ``La Tribune de l'Art,'' by saying France wishes to be open to the world, and major works such as Leonardo da Vinci's ``Mona Lisa'' will stay home.

Cachin said in the interview that Abu Dhabi marked the first time that political power dictated art loans. Decisions have always been the preserve of museum curators and directors working among themselves, she said.

She voiced concerns that proper care might not be given to the artworks on loan. While accidents involving artworks are ``extremely rare,'' they do happen, she said.

Curator Chaperones

Describing the art loan process, Cachin, wearing red lipstick and a paisley brown blouse, said paintings are systematically inspected by curators and art restorers, who grant or withhold permission for them to move. If clearance is granted, they are then carried by specialized transporters and insured at high cost.

Works are chaperoned on the journey by a curator or official from the lending museum who takes them to their temporary destination and later collects them. ``We accompany them to make sure that nothing happens between the time they leave the museum and enter the plane, and the time they leave the plane and get hung,'' Cachin said. ``The people on the tarmac don't know there's a painting in the crate.''

Cachin recalled one occasion in 1989 when Gauguin's 1896 ``Self-Portrait Near Golgotha'' was borrowed for her exhibition at the Grand Palais from the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo in Brazil.

``We opened the crate, and half of the painting was in pieces underneath the frame. The painting could not withstand the trip,'' recalls Cachin. ``Thankfully, the pieces were quite big.'' She sought, and got, permission to have the work restored by her teams in Paris before it was sent back.

On another occasion, as a young curator at the Musee d'Art Moderne in 1969, she flew to Moscow on a Tupolev cargo plane with crates full of paintings by Matisse -- some being loaned by France for a show in Moscow, and others being returned to Moscow after exhibition in Paris. On board were two ``very friendly'' pilots who gave her sandwiches and spoke languages Cachin didn't.

`My Matisses'

Suddenly, the plane began to descend, and Cachin saw lakes through the window. This was not Moscow but Riga, where the pilots were making a delivery stopover, unbeknown to Cachin or the transport company. The plane landed, and in walked a highly decorated, stout policewoman, suspicious of Cachin and her multiple U.S. and international passport stamps.

``She told me to get off,'' Cachin remembered. ``I said no. I didn't want to leave my paintings alone.'' Cachin sat by herself on the plane for two hours while the policewoman checked up on her -- ``I thought, I'll end up in a jail in Riga, without my Matisses'' -- and finally arrived in Moscow in the middle of the night.

Enough to never want to loan paintings again? Not quite, said Cachin. ``Loaning paintings is not without danger, but at the same time you have to make works be known, make them live on. You can't just lock yourself up with them in your museum.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at Farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 27, 2007 01:46 EDT