Louvre closes gallery due to structural weakness

The world’s most visited museum, the Louvre Museum in France, has closed a gallery housing Greek vases and office space because its structures, designed in the 1930s, are in dire straits, the world’s most visited museum said.

The Louvre said Monday that a new technical report showed weakness in the beams under the second floor of the Sully wing, necessitating the closure of the first-floor Campana gallery and the relocation of 65 museum staff from the second floor.

The Campana gallery is next door to the Apollo gallery, which houses the French crown jewels targeted in last month’s robbery.

“Staff representatives have been warning about the condition of the building for years because it affects working conditions and visitors,” said Valerie Baud of the CFDT union.

“But we didn’t know it was this bad,” he said. “There is a serious deterioration in the situation.”

The gallery’s closure, after a robbery carried out with relative ease, is another sign of the museum’s dereliction, highlighted by a state auditor report that said management neglected security and infrastructure in favor of art acquisitions and post-pandemic restart projects.

On October 19, two men parked a transport elevator outside the building, went up to the second floor, smashed a window, smashed open display cases with a grinder, and rode away on motorcycles carrying $US102 million ($157 million) worth of historic jewels.

Although four suspects are being investigated, the jewels have not yet been found.

First built in Paris in the late 12th century, the Louvre Palace was the official residence of the kings of France for centuries until Louis XIV, fed up with unruly crowds in Paris, abandoned it for Versailles and then became a museum for the royal art collection in 1793.

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