Underfunding And Overcrowding Threaten The World’s Masterpieces As The Louvre Shuts Down Due To Strikes
The museum closed its doors without warning for around four hours leaving thousands of tourists stranded, confused and holding tickets in long lines. Although the museum has been shut before due to wars and the global pandemic, this time it was because of its own staff
The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum and home to masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo came to a standstill on Monday. The museum closed its doors without warning for around four hours leaving thousands of tourists stranded, confused and holding tickets in long lines. Although the museum has been shut before due to wars and the global pandemic, this time it was because of its own staff. In a spontaneous protest that erupted during a routine internal meeting, attendants, ticket agents and security personnel refused to work.
They demanded better working conditions and reported being understaffed and overwhelmed by huge crowds, with one worker calling the environment “untenable.”
In a leaked memo from January 2025, Louvre President Laurence des Cars warned that parts of the building were no longer watertight and temperature swings could harm the artwork, stating that “visiting the Louvre is a physical ordeal; accessing the artworks takes time and is not always easy. Visitors have no space to take a break. The food options and restroom facilities are insufficient in volume, falling below international standards. The signage needs to be completely redesigned."
In 2024, a reported nine million tourists visited the Louvre, far more than the building was designed to handle, with only a staff of 2,213 across 785,765 square feet of area to manage them.
The French government has unveiled a decade-long plan dubbed the “Louvre New Renaissance,” but according to the CGT-Culture Union, the fixes are needed urgently as the teams are under pressure. The French President Emmanuel Macron announced that a special room will be allotted for the Mona Lisa with a time-based entry, and a new entrance near the Seine River will be constructed. However, workers have called Macron hypocritical stating that the Louvre’s basic funding has also gone down by 20% in the past 10 years even as the number of visitors increased significantly.
Currently, the Louvre is at a standstill, not fully funded and not fully fixed, a situation that as of now, has no ready solution.
The article is authored by Rishima Mosali, an intern from Symbiosis, Pune.