In France, some linguists and historians publicly deplore the decision. Some sections of the Italian press react angrily, sometimes in vehement terms: "scourge of political correctness", "cultural catastrophe"…
But as journalist Anaïs Kien points out on France Culture: "All this fuss is chiefly a clever hoax that has been blown out of all proportion, to the point of absurdity." In fact, the removal of Roman numerals affects just 170 texts out of more than 3,000 throughout the museum: the labels that make up Carnavalet's new "universal accessibility scheme", intended primarily for international audiences and visitors with disabilities. A drop in the ocean, then. Yet the scale of its repercussions reveals how polarized the debate has become between defenders of cultural traditions and advocates of an interpretive approach that puts accessibility for the general public first.
