{"id":481814,"date":"2026-06-17T11:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481814\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:11:07","slug":"louvre-museum-in-paris-running-out-of-steam-says-new-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481814\/","title":{"rendered":"Louvre museum in Paris \u2018running out of steam\u2019, says new director"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">PARIS \u2013 The Louvre museum is struggling to find funding to upgrade its ageing facilities, its new director said on June 17, following a litany of problems that included a brazen US$100 million (S$128 million) jewellery heist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cDespite its imposing majesty, despite the daily commitment of its staff, the Louvre is running out of steam,\u201d Christophe Leribault told a Senate committee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cIts equipment and infrastructure are reaching the end of their life cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Leribault, an art historian and museum director specialising in 18th-century art, took the helm in February, after his predecessor stepped down following an embarrassing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/europe\/louvre-museum-closes-in-paris-after-break-in?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">daylight theft of imperial jewels in October 2025<\/a> that laid bare severe security failings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Home to iconic pieces of art, including Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Mona Lisa, the Louvre is the world\u2019s most visited museum, receiving around nine million visitors a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It is housed in a vast palace in central Paris on the banks of the Seine River, built over centuries by various French monarchs who at times used it as their official residence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cBuilding-related emergencies are piling up, and we\u2019re facing a wall in terms of investments,\u201d Leribault said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The museum had struggled with repeated strikes causing loss of revenue, a ticket fraud scheme that may have cost the museum \u20ac10 million (S$14.8 million), a water leak and other maintenance issues. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2013 The Louvre museum is struggling to find funding to upgrade its ageing facilities, its new director&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-481814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}