Water leak within the Louvre damages lots of of works, museum says

[ad_1] A water leak in late November broken a number of hundred works within the Louvre’s Egyptian division, the Paris museum mentioned on Sunday, weeks after a brazen jewel theft raised considerations over its infrastructure.

“Between 300 and 400 works” have been affected by the leak found on 26 November, the museum’s deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, mentioned, describing them as “Egyptology journals” and “scientific documentation” utilized by researchers.

The broken gadgets dated from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and have been “extraordinarily helpful” however “not at all distinctive”, Steinbock added.

“No heritage artefacts have been affected by this harm,” he mentioned. “At this stage, we now have no irreparable and definitive losses in these collections.”

The incident comes after a theft in October during which a four-person gang raided the world’s most-visited artwork museum in broad daylight, stealing jewelry price an estimated $102m (£76.5m) in simply seven minutes earlier than escaping. It led to a debate over the museum’s ageing infrastructure.

The Louvre mentioned there can be an inner investigation into the November leak, which was attributable to the unintentional opening of a valve within the heating and air flow system that led to water seeping by means of the ceiling of the Mollien wing, the place the books have been saved.

The “fully out of date” system had been shut down for months and was due to get replaced from September 2026, the museum administrator added.

The works will “be dried, despatched to a bookbinder to be restored, after which returned to the cabinets”, Steinbock mentioned.

In late November, the Louvre mentioned it could increase ticket costs for many non-EU guests, that means US, British and Chinese language vacationers, amongst others, should pay €32 (£28) to get in.