{"id":482103,"date":"2026-02-15T18:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482103\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T18:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:50:26","slug":"fresh-water-leak-adds-to-louvre-museum-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482103\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh water leak adds to Louvre museum woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Louvre’s chief architect Francois Chatillon conceded in front of MPs in November that the building was “not in a good state”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A message on the museum’s website Friday stated that “for reasons beyond our control, certain rooms are exceptionally closed”.<\/p>\n

FRAUD SCANDALThe news came just a day after revelations that police had dismantled a “large-scale” ticket fraud network at the Louvre that allegedly includes two museum employees and several tour guides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Paris prosecutor’s office estimates that the fraud, which involved Chinese tourists, could have cost the institution up to 10 million euros (US$11.9 million).<\/p>\n

Investigators believe several guides working with Chinese tourists were re-using tickets and entering the Louvre several times, bribing security staff to get their compliance.<\/p>\n

Police have seized around a million euros in cash and 486,000 euros from different bank accounts linked to the gang.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The accumulation of problems has piled pressure on museum boss Laurence des Cars who faced calls to resign after the Oct 19 robbery in which thieves steal crown jewels<\/a> worth more than US$100 million.<\/p>\n

Two intruders used a truck-mounted extendable platform to access a gallery containing the jewels, slicing through a glass door with disk-cutters in front of startled visitors before grabbing eight priceless items.<\/p>\n

Disgruntled staff have also launched a wave of strikes since the start of the year demanding more recruitment and improved salaries, forcing management to shutter the former royal palace on several Mondays.<\/p>\n

The Louvre welcomed nine million visitors last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Louvre’s chief architect Francois Chatillon conceded in front of MPs in November that the building was “not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,2592,87480,2591],"class_list":{"0":"post-482103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-france","16":"tag-louvre","17":"tag-paris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}