Hundreds of employees at the Louvre Museum went on strike on Monday, prompting its temporary closure and compounding a sense of crisis that began with the theft in October of crown jewels worth roughly $100 million.
Crowds of striking workers blocked the museum’s pyramid-shaped entrance Monday morning, after a daylong strike was called by roughly 400 of the museum’s 2,100 staff members. The strikers said they sought higher salaries, a bigger staff, better allocation of resources and a management that “truly listens to employees.”
The strike adds to a broader malaise engulfing the Louvre since the burglary in October, which exposed security, management and budgetary problems at one of the world’s most prestigious museums. Government investigators have since found that the museum’s current and previous leadership failed to enact security recommendations that could have hampered the heist, and misallocated resources by refurbishing exhibition spaces and acquiring new art instead of paying for repairs.
Now, the museum’s workers are citing some of these concerns to help justify their decision to take industrial action. In a letter warning of its strike plans last week, union leaders said the museum’s workers “feel that they are now the last line of defense before collapse.” The letter noted how “the various internal warnings have gone unheeded,” and accused the museum management of failing to create “sufficient awareness of the crisis we are facing.”
Protesting outside the museum on Monday, Vanessa Michaut-Valora, a union leader and museum guard, said “the break-in revealed to the world all of the dysfunction.”
The museum management did not respond to a request for comment on the strikers’ accusations.
Investigators also revealed that security guards had been watching the wrong surveillance cameras at the time of the burglary, a finding that contradicted earlier explanations from the museum’s director, Laurence des Cars, and amplified calls for her resignation. The museum also had to preemptively close a gallery after officials found weaknesses in its beams, weeks before a leak from a water pipe damaged up to 400 documents in a museum library.
Yvan Navarro, another union leader standing outside the museum, said the causes for the strikers’ anger dated back years. “Wear and tear on employees, wear and tear on buildings, wear and tear on working conditions,” Mr. Navarro said, “these are things that happen over the long term, and the employees feel it and see it every day.”
An average of 30,000 visitors every day pace through the Louvre’s treasure-filled rooms, where they can see some of the world’s most famous artworks, including Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” On Monday, they were locked out, blocked from entry by striking workers carrying union flags and banners.
“We’re disappointed,” said Francesco Caporuscio, a Canadian tourist who was waiting in the cold outside the entrance, with his wife, Connie. “This is our first time in Paris, I don’t know when we’re going to come back,” Mr. Caporuscio said.
The strike marked the start of a portentous week for the Louvre, with its director, Ms. des Cars, and her predecessor, Jean-Luc Martinez, set to be questioned by senators on Tuesday and Wednesday about the problems at the museum.
Ms. des Cars is expected to be asked, among other things, about a contentious renovation plan, promoted by Ms. des Cars and President Emmanuel Macron of France, called “Louvre — New Renaissance.” Under the plan, the museum will build a new entrance and a new room to house the “Mona Lisa,” but auditors said it should focus only on resolving key infrastructure problems.
The renovation plan has also drawn opposition from union leaders, who cited it as a reason for their strike.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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