First a Heist, Now Water Damage: Louvre in Trouble
The water leak incident has intensified pressure on the museum to implement long-delayed renovation plans, which officials hope to fund partly through a sharp ticket price increase.
By Mario Leonardo Iñiguez – Paris-30, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53215734
The water leak incident has intensified pressure on the museum to implement long-delayed renovation plans, which officials hope to fund partly through a sharp ticket price increase.
A late-November water leak damaged several hundred works and books in the Louvre’s Egyptian department, the Paris museum said on Sunday, December 7th, weeks after a jewel theft raised concerns about its ageing infrastructure.
Francis Steinbock, the museum’s deputy administrator, said “between 300 and 400 works”—mostly Egyptology journals and scientific documentation from the late 19th and early 20th centuries—had been affected. While they were extremely useful to researchers, the items were not unique and no heritage artefacts were harmed, the museum claimed.
The leak was caused by the accidental opening of a valve in the museum’s outdated heating and ventilation system, allowing water to seep through the ceiling of the Mollien wing.
All damaged works will be dried, restored and returned to the shelves, the museum said. Meanwhile, the Louvre plans to raise ticket prices for most non-EU visitors to €32, a 45% increase intended to boost revenue for long-needed improvements.
