Paris’ Iconic Louvre Shutdown Explained: Strike, Security Concerns And A Museum Under Pressure

The Louvre won’t open its doors this Monday, December 15. Workers voted to strike, and honestly, you can’t blame them just two months ago, thieves pulled off a wild heist and made off with French crown jewels right from under the museum’s nose.

Union reps told AFP that staff are sticking with the strike. Security guards stopped visitors at the entrance on Monday morning, letting them know the museum was closed. 

Louvre Closed as Workers Go on Strike

Outside, a crowd of workers blocked the main doors under that famous glass pyramid, holding signs and chanting. One banner read, “The Louvre on strike.” The crowd shouted together, “Who does the Louvre belong to? To us!”

So what do they want? More staff and real solutions for overcrowding. It’s a rough time for the world’s most popular museum, especially with the Christmas rush coming up.

“We’re angry,” said Elise Muller, a security guard. “We don’t like how the Louvre has been run lately.”

This strike isn’t coming out of nowhere. Two months ago, the museum got hit with a brazen daytime robbery—$102 million in crown jewels gone, just like that.

Inside the Louvre Strike

A sign in the courtyard made it official: The Louvre would stay closed on Monday.

At a big meeting, about 400 employees voted zero dissent to start this strike, and they’ll keep it going if things don’t change. The CGT and CFDT unions said it’s a protest against worsening work conditions.

Another meeting is set for Wednesday. The museum always closes on Tuesdays.

Louvre boss Laurence des Cars has been under pressure for a while now, with people constantly calling for her to step down. Back in January, she sent a memo to the government everyone saw it raising the alarm about leaks, overheating, and the fact that the visitor experience was going downhill.

Not long after, President Emmanuel Macron announced a huge renovation plan for the museum. The price tag? Somewhere between 700 and 800 million euros, which is close to a billion dollars.

But after the break-in, people still can’t stop asking: Could this have been stopped? Why did the museum seem so unprotected?

Here’s what happened. Two intruders showed up with a portable ladder. They got into the gallery holding the crown jewels, used angle grinders to cut through a glass door—right in front of shocked visitors—and made off with eight priceless pieces.

Investigators found out that only one security camera outside was actually working at the time. The guards in the control room didn’t have enough screens to monitor everything live. And when the police finally responded, they were sent to the wrong place.

What is the strike about? 

Museum staff walked off the job, saying they’re fed up with pay and working conditions, so now the most popular museum in the world is harder to get into. Just in October, thieves took jewels worth 88 million euros from the Louvre. And that’s not all—the place has had water leaks too, damaging ancient books.

Francis Steinbock, the museum’s deputy administrator, explained that an open valve in the heating and ventilation system ended up damaging 300 to 400 journals, books, and documents in the Egyptian department.

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