Louvre closed by spontaneous staff strikes “untenable” working conditions

Paris – Le Louvre, the most visited museum in the world and a global symbol of art, beauty and endurance, resisted war, terror and pandemic – but on Monday, it was arrested by its own striking staff, who says that the institution collapses under the weight of mass tourism.

It was an almost unthinkable show: the house of works by Leonardo da Vinci and the millennia of the greatest treasures of civilization – paralyzed by the very people responsible for welcoming the world in its galleries.

“It’s Mona Lisa moans here,” said Kevin Ward, 62, from Milwaukee. “Thousands of people waiting, no communication, no explanation. I assume that even she needs a day off.”

The Louvre has become a symbol of tourism pushed to its limits. While the Venice hotspots at the Acropolis race to curb the crowds, the most emblematic museum in the world, visited by millions of people, strikes its own breakdown point.

One day earlier, coordinated anti-tourism demonstrations swept away southern Europe. Thousands of people joined Mallorca, Venice, Lisbon and Beyond, denouncing an economic model which, according to them, moves the locals and erodes the life of the city. In Barcelona, ​​activists have sprayed tourists with water pistols – a theatrical attempt to “cool” fugitive tourism.

The spontaneous strike of the Louvre broke out during an internal routine meeting, while the gallery agents, the ticket agents and the security staff refused to take their posts to protest against the unmanageable crowds, the lack of chronic sub-employment and what a union called “untenable” working conditions.

It is rare for the Louvre to close its doors. This occurred during the war, during the pandemic and in a handful of strikes – including spontaneous outbrows on overcrowding in 2019 and safety fears in 2013. But it rarely happened so suddenly, without warning, and at the sight of the crowd.

In addition, the disturbance occurs just a few months after President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a decade scanning plan to save the Louvre from precisely the problems that flow now – water leaks, dangerous temperature jumps, obsolete infrastructure and pedestrian traffic far beyond what the museum can manage.

But for workers in the field, this promised future feels distant.

“We cannot wait six years to get help,” said Sarah Sefian, a home gallery agent and a visitors’ services agent. “Our teams are under pressure now. It is not only a question of art – these are people who protect it.”

The daily crowd of the Mona Lisa

At the center of all this is the Mona Lisa – a portrait of the 16th century which attracts modern crowds more similar to a meeting of celebrities than an artistic experience.

About 20,000 people a day crowd in the States room, the largest room in the museum, just to break a selfie with the enigmatic woman of Leonardo da Vinci behind a protective window. The scene is often noisy, which is jostling and so dense that many take a look at the masterpieces which flanked it – works by Titian and Véronèse which become largely ignored.

“You don’t see painting,” said Ji-Hyun Park, 28, who stole from Seoul in Paris. “You see phones. You see elbows. You feel heat. And then, you are pushed.”

Macron’s renovation plan, nicknamed “Louvre New Renaissance”, promises a remedy. The Mona Lisa will finally get its own dedicated room, accessible through a time entrance ticket. A new entrance near the Seine river is also planned by 2031 to relieve the pressure from the submerged pyramid center.

“The conditions of display, explanation and presentation will be up to what the Mona Lisa deserves,” said Macron in January.

But the Louvre workers call Macron Hypocritus and say that the renovation plan from 700 to 800 million euros (730 million to 834 million dollars) masks a deeper crisis. While Macron invests in new entries and exhibition spaces, the annual operational subsidies of the Louvre of the French State have decreased by more than 20% in the last decade – even if the number of visitors has skyrocketed.

“We consider it very badly that Mr. President pronounces his speeches here in our museum,” said Sefian, “but when you scratch the surface, the financial investment of the Empire State each year.”

While many striking employees planned to stay out of service all day, Sefian said that some workers can temporarily return to open a limited “masterpiece”, allowing access to certain protruding facts, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The complete museum could reopen as usual on Wednesday, and some tourists with tickets sensitive to Monday can be allowed to reuse them then. Tuesday, the Louvre is closed.

A museum in limbo

The Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors last year – more than double what its infrastructure was designed to adapt. Even with a daily ceiling of 30,000, the staff says that experience has become a daily endurance test, with too few rest areas, limited bathrooms and summer heat amplified by the greenhouse effect of the pyramid.

In a disclosed memo, the president of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, warned that certain parts of the building are “no longer waterproof”, that temperature fluctuations endanger the invaluable art, and that even the basic needs of visitors – food, toilets, signaling – fall below international standards. She described the experience simply as “a physical test”.

“What started as a scheduled monthly information session turned into a massive expression of exasperation,” said Sefian. The discussions between workers and management started at 10:30 am and continued in the afternoon.

The complete renovation plan should be funded by ticket revenues, private donations, public funds and license fees of the ABU Dhabi branch of the Louvre. Tourist prices for EU tourists are expected to increase later this year.

But workers say that their needs are more urgent than any plan at 10 years old.

Unlike other major sites in Paris, such as Notre Dame’s cathedral or the Center Pompidou Museum, which undergo restorations supported by the government, the Louvre remains stuck in limbo – neither fully funded nor fully functional.

President Macron, who delivered his speech of electoral victory in 2017 at the Louvre and presented it during the Paris Olympic Games in 2024, promised a safer and more modern museum by the end of the decade.

Until then, France’s largest cultural treasure – and the millions that flock to see it – remain taken between the meshes of the net.