Every Month Brings New Alarming Incidents at the Louvre

At the end of November, a serious accident occurred in the library of the Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities: at about 21:00 on 27 November, old pipes in the suspended ceiling burst. Dirty water flooded the rooms, damaging some 400 rare books, including their antique bindings. The flow was so strong that the water forced its way down to the floor below and reached the electrical switchboard. A few days later the leak recurred in the same place.

Yet for many years the department's staff had been asking management for funds to repair the decrepit utilities and to move the valuable collections to a safer location, without result. Against this background, the recent refurbishment of the Louvre's top managers' offices, at almost 300,000 euros and mostly spent on designer furniture, stands in particularly sharp contrast.

It is known that unique editions such as the Description de l'Égypte and the albums of Lepsius were not damaged, but they remain at risk: they stand beneath the windows and are protected only by bubble wrap. The main threat is still the faulty system of pipes, which no one is in a hurry to replace.

The Louvre explains what is happening by its priorities, but in fact the museum is sinking ever deeper into its own problems, sometimes quite literally.