Workers at the world-renowned Louvre Museum have overwhelmingly voted to strike, citing deteriorating working conditions, a controversial ticket price increase for non-European visitors, and significant security vulnerabilities.
The decision, made on Monday, will see industrial action commence next Monday.
In a letter addressed to France's culture minister, Rachida Dati, and seen by The Associated Press, unions CGT, CFDT, and Sud asserted that "visiting the Louvre has become a real obstacle course" for the millions who flock to its vast collections.
They described the museum as being in "crisis," plagued by insufficient resources and "increasingly deteriorated working conditions."
The unions highlighted a brazen daylight theft of France’s Crown Jewels on 19 October 2025 as a stark illustration of the security failings.
They alleged that "The theft of 19 October 2025 highlighted shortcomings in priorities that had long been reported," underscoring long-standing concerns that have now culminated in strike action.
The robbery gang made off with stolen goods worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million). The museum director subsequently acknowledged a ″terrible failure" in security.
The thieves took less than eight minutes to force their way into the museum and leave, using a freight lift to reach one of the building’s windows, angle grinders to cut into jewelry display cases, and motorbikes to make their escape.
The stolen items haven’t been recovered. It includes a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to two 19th century queens, Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.
The strike action comes as an estimated 400 books were damaged in the Egyptian antiquities department following the leak last month.
La Tribune de l'Art reported that the department had been requesting funding from the museum’s deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, for years in order to protect the books from pipes, which were in poor condition.
Mr Steinbock told BFM TV on Sunday that the water pipe leak affected one of the three rooms in the library of the Egyptian antiquities department.
He said the museum had identified between 300 and 400 works, but “the count is ongoing”, adding the books lost were “those consulted by Egyptologists, but no precious books”.
Richard Childress to testify in NASCAR antitrust trial amid derogatory texts and revenue dispute
Partial list of 2026 Golden Globe nominees
French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’
Ukraine war latest: Merz ‘sceptical’ about US peace deal as European allies meet
Greek police fire tear gas at farmers during major EU protests
More feared dead as migrant boat capsizes off the coast of Greece
