Arya News - Staff at the Louvre have voted to strike over poor working conditions, deepening months of turmoil at the world’s most visited museum.
Staff at the Louvre have voted to strike over poor working conditions, deepening months of turmoil at the world’s most visited museum .
Unions had urged employees to stop working, citing poor conditions, insufficient staffing and years of ignored warnings over the museum’s ageing infrastructure. About 200 staff unanimously backed the walkout, starting on Dec 15.
If followed widely by the Louvre’s 2,100-strong workforce, the strike could lead to the closure of the museum in the run-up to Christmas.
The announcement is the latest crisis to hit the institution in recent months after thieves carried out a jewellery heist in October in which they made off with the crown jewels including a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise.
The news of the Christmas strike came a day after the museum admitted there had been a water leak at the Department of Egyptian Antiquities’ library in late November, which drenched between 300 and 400 books, some dating to the late 19th century.
The leak, caused by a valve that had been accidentally opened in a heating system, highlighted what unions described as “predictable” failures across the historic complex.
Francis Steinbock, the Louvre’s deputy administrator, told the French news agency AFP that no heritage artefacts had been affected by the leak and that, at that point, there had been no “irreparable” losses. The museum said there would be an internal investigation into the leak.
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If the strike leads to the museum’s closure, it would not be the first time this year that the Louvre has been forced to shut temporarily. On June 16, the museum closed after gallery attendants, ticket agents and security personnel organised a spontaneous walkout over what they saw as understaffing and overcrowding.
In a joint letter addressed to Rachida Dati, the culture minister, on Monday, the CFDT, CGT and SUD unions said that parts of the Louvre were being closed regularly because of “insufficient staff numbers, as well as technical failures and the building’s ageing condition”.
“The public now has only limited access to the artworks and has trouble moving around. A visit to the Louvre has become a real obstacle course,” they added.
The strike has also reopened questions about the Louvre’s mounting security troubles .
On Oct 19, thieves disguised as workers staged a raid in the Galerie d’Apollon, stealing eight pieces of French crown jewellery worth an estimated €88m (£76m) in less than eight minutes.
While police have arrested a number of suspects, the jewels remain missing. The affair has intensified scrutiny of gaps in the museum’s surveillance network, with some cameras reportedly misaligned or left covering a fraction of galleries.
Unions said they intended to “apply pressure for a week” to force action.
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