Paris Louvre museum to remain partially open as strike action over work conditions continues

The Louvre Museum said it would remain partially open to the public on Wednesday, even as employees voted to extend a strike protesting what unions describe as increasingly "untenable conditions" at the world’s most visited museum.

The action comes at a particularly sensitive moment for the Paris landmark, which is still reeling from the high-profile jewel heist on 19 October.

Staff representatives cited a growing list of concerns, including chronic understaffing, deteriorating infrastructure, worsening working conditions and plans to raise ticket prices for visitors from outside the European Union.

"Dear visitors, the musée du Louvre opened a little late this morning. Due to a strike, some rooms in the Louvre Museum are exceptionally closed this Wednesday, December 17," explained the museum in a tweet around noon Paris time.

The Culture Ministry had sought to ease tensions by announcing several measures, including the cancellation of a planned €5.7 million cut to the museum’s funding in 2026, the launch of targeted recruitment for visitor services and security staff, and a pay adjustment.

Unions, however, argue that these commitments fall short, calling instead for long-term guarantees on staffing levels and compensation.

Earlier this week, around 400 employees had already voted unanimously in favour of strike action.

On Monday, the museum closed its doors, leaving visitors, some of whom had travelled long distances during the busy end-of-year period, to learn of the disruption upon arrival. The museum was shuttered on Tuesday for its weekly closed day.

The ongoing strike has further weakened the museum’s leadership at a time of intense scrutiny.

Louvre president Laurence des Cars appeared once again before the Senate’s culture committee on Wednesday afternoon, as lawmakers examined security failings exposed by October’s theft.

Shortly after the robbery, des Cars acknowledged a “failure” in security during a Senate hearing, while defending her record and stating that work on the museum’s security master plan had been accelerated.

Earlier this month, France's Court of Auditors urged the Louvre to rethink its investment priorities, arguing that modernisation of equipment had been consistently underfunded compared with other projects.

The administrative investigation launched after the 19 October theft found that the robbery was made easier by the absence of protective bars on the windows.

Removed during renovation work in 2003, they had never been reinstalled. Des Cars told senators on Wednesday that the metal bars will be put back in place "within days."

She also stressed that the display cases housing the crown jewels, installed in 2018 and 2019, were more robust than previous versions.

Des Cars also announced that the appointment of a new security coordinator was imminent. The role, she said, would be filled by an experienced security professional reporting directly to her, with the task of improving information-sharing across departments, a weakness repeatedly identified by investigators.

Detailing the measures taken since the theft, des Cars said security had been reinforced both inside and around the museum.

These steps include new crowd-control barriers along the Seine, a mobile police unit near the Carrousel, and the planned deployment of 100 additional perimeter cameras in the coming months.

More broadly, des Cars warned of mounting structural challenges facing the Louvre, citing ageing technical infrastructure, the fragility of a site that is both a historic palace and a museum, unbalanced visitor flows concentrated in a handful of galleries, and increasingly difficult working conditions for staff.

She also defended the museum's large-scale expansion project, dubbed the "New Renaissance of the Louvre," launched earlier this year by President Emmanuel Macron.

While the Court of Auditors has raised serious concerns about its financing, des Cars described the plan as "necessary, realistic and responsible," adding that she was determined to see it through.