British art museums must avoid the mistake the palatial Paris gallery is making in sending its treasures to the provinces.

British museums don't need to emulate the Louvre in sending the choice works of their collections to new branches in poor and neglected parts of the country. I'm not sure it's a good idea for the Louvre, either.

The great Paris art museum is getting international praise for opening a new Louvre in Lens, a former mining town in northern France. But the Louvre is taking a huge risk by sending masterpieces such as Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People to the new Louvre-Lens. It is breaking up a collection that is one of the wonders of the world. For every visitor who makes the trip to Lens, there will be people frantically scouring the Louvre in Paris looking for the vanished Delacroix that is usually one of its highlights.

I think it's political correctness gone mad. There's no reason to undermine the strength of a great museum such as the Louvre in the name of regional equality. There are only a few museums like the Louvre in the world, and they have their own egalitarianism in the universal overview of human culture that they provide. It would be better for the Louvre to find ways to bring diverse communities into its Paris home using the multicultural approach pioneered by the British Museum in London.

Big museums that are global destinations are not elitist. They are exciting, rich and truly educational. They have a glamour that stops them feeling like school, a scale that lifts the spirits. Diffusing this rare magic is illogical. The Louvre-Lens looks like a clumsy idea to me, a self-hating move by an institution that should be proud of its palatial magnificence.

British galleries definitely should not leap in the same direction. For one thing, Britain is smaller than France, the capital comparatively accessible. People from all over the country can and do come to London and can and do visit its museums. But there are lots of good ways to spread the glory without fragmenting great collections. The regional journeys of the Turner prize take its controversies beyond London. The Tate already has branches in Liverpool and St Ives. The National Gallery, the British Museum and even the Royal Collection send important exhibits all over Britain as well as abroad. Above all, Britain has excellent city museums far from London, many with outstanding collections. The more links and loans between these fine galleries and the London museums, the better. It is essential too for them to be properly funded.

To go further and break up world-class museums is a daft idea. It won't create new museums of the highest order. It will just damage the ones that already exist. Good luck to the Louvre-Lens, but I will still be making my journeys to the Louvre in Paris, a truly worthwhile destination.