{"id":547264,"date":"2026-06-21T21:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/547264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T21:03:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:03:38","slug":"frances-louvre-museum-running-out-of-steam-new-director-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/547264\/","title":{"rendered":"France’s Louvre museum ‘running out of steam’, new director says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Louvre<\/a> museum is struggling to find funding to upgrade its ageing facilities, its new director said Wednesday, following a litany of problems that included a brazen $100-million jewellery heist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Despite its imposing majesty, despite the daily commitment of its staff, the Louvre is running out of steam,” Christophe Leribault told a Senate committee.<\/p>\n

“Its equipment and infrastructure are reaching the end of their life cycle.”<\/p>\n

Watch moreThe Louvre heist: Security flaws and deeper cracks at France\u2019s top museum<\/a><\/p>\n

Leribault, an art historian and museum director specialising in 18th-century art, took the helm in February<\/a>, after his predecessor stepped down following an embarrassing daylight theft of imperial jewels in October that laid bare severe security failings.<\/p>\n

Home to iconic pieces of art including Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”, the Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, receiving around nine million visitors a year.<\/p>\n

It is housed in a vast palace in central Paris<\/a> on the banks of the Seine<\/a> River, built over centuries by various French monarchs who at times used it as their official residence.<\/p>\n

“Building-related emergencies are piling up, and we’re facing a wall in terms of investments,” Leribault said.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> last year announced a sweeping overhaul for the Louvre<\/a> that would include a new space for the Mona Lisa and a new museum entrance.<\/p>\n

Macron’s aides have said the project is expected to cost from \u20ac700 million to \u20ac800 million ($730 to 830 million). But the French Court of Auditors has put the price tag at \u20ac1.15 billion.<\/p>\n

Under the plan, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece \u2013 which attracts around 20,000 visitors a day \u2013 will be independently accessible from the rest of the museum, with a separate ticket to see it.<\/p>\n

The museum has recently struggled with repeated strikes causing loss of revenue, a ticket fraud scheme<\/a> that may have cost the museum \u20ac10 million ($11.7 million), a water leak and other maintenance issues.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Louvre museum is struggling to find funding to upgrade its ageing facilities, its new director said Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,2220,79952,19,17,35494,4504,11935],"class_list":["post-547264","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-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-france","tag-heist","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-louvre","tag-museums","tag-paris"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116790126564020019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}