At a gathering of 200 Louvre staffers from three unions, staff voted “with unanimity” in favor of a strike set to start out on December 15, the Agence France-Presse reported Monday.
A strike discover was filed by the CGT, CFDT, and Sud unions to France’s Ministry of Tradition and shared with the press. In it, the unions stated “visiting the Louvre has turn out to be an actual impediment course” for guests, describing the museum as being in “disaster” with “more and more deteriorated working situations.”
“The theft of 19 October 2025 highlighted shortcomings in priorities that had lengthy been reported,” the letter reads.
The strike could result in museum closures through the busy late-December vacation interval.
It’s simply the most recent expression of employees unrest on the museum this yr. In January, director Laurence des Automobiles warned in a leaked memo of water leaks, overcrowding, and a “proliferation of injury in museum areas.” Des Automobiles went on to name for a serious overhaul of the museum, which is run by the state.
Every week after the leaked memo, President Emmanuel Macron introduced an intensive renovation plan dubbed the “Louvre New Renaissance,” which would offer the Mona Lisa a devoted room with a timed-entry ticket, in addition to a brand new entrance. The plan, to be accomplished by 2031, has been estimated to value €700–800 million.
That proposal did little to alleviate the unrest. In June, the museum was compelled to shut when employees launched a wildcat strike to protest working situations tied to overcrowding and understaffing.
Then, in October, the museum suffered an notorious theft wherein thieves made off with $102 million in French royal jewels. Employees had been livid within the aftermath, booing des Automobiles in a gathering, and, in response to some conflicting studies, staging a brief wildcat strike the week after.
Union officers complained of employees reductions, whereas an official report discovered that the museum’s safety methods had been outdated and insufficient. The museum and France’s Tradition Ministry have stated they’re working to put in 100 new CCTV cameras, however they won’t be operational till the tip of 2026.
Late final month, the museum stated it needed to shut its southern Sully wing after structural weaknesses had been present in a number of beams. And this previous Sunday, Francis Steinbeck, the deputy normal administrator of the Louvre, informed French broadcaster BFM-TV {that a} water leak had broken as many as 400 books within the Egyptian antiquities division library.
Final week, the French Parliament introduced its personal investigation into the state of the Louvre.
