Louvre Boss Says Museum 'No Longer Watertight'

Priceless artworks are at risk from water leaks at Paris' Louvre, according to a leaked memo to France's culture minister. Louvre director Laurence des Cars wrote to Rachida Dati earlier this month, complaining about the "proliferation of damage in museum spaces, some of which are in very poor condition," reports Le Parisien, which published the confidential memo on Wednesday. Des Cars said some areas of the museum "are no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks," per AFP. She added that the world's most-visited museum was due for an overhaul, likely be expensive and complicated.

At present, the museum, parts of which date back to the 12th century, accepts some 8.7 million visitors a year—double the number it was designed to hold, des Cars wrote. All those people cause "physical strain" on the building, which lacks spaces for visitors "to take a break" due to the overcrowding, she added. Even the museum's most modern addition, the Grand Louvre, including the famous glass pyramid, largely completed in the 1990s, has "major shortcomings," becoming "inhospitable" on hot days when the sun heats up the space, des Cars wrote. The director also complained "the food options and restroom facilities are insufficient in volume, falling well below international standards."

Since becoming the museum's first female director in 2021, des Cars has limited daily visitors to 30,000, down from pre-pandemic highs of 45,000, and extended opening hours. But she'd like to add a second entrance, foyer, and exhibition space in the museum's "easternmost facade, a 17th-century colonnade," to better distribute visitors, the New York Times reported in 2023. There has also been talk of moving the Mona Lisa, which attracts some 80% of visitors, to a dedicated room in the basement. It currently resides at the back of a large, upper room, which may fit a lot of people but makes Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece look "like a postage stamp," a curator said last year, per Artnews. (More The Louvre stories.)