The Louvre museum next to the Louvre pyramid, in Paris, on November 3, 2025. JULIE SEBADELHA / AFP
The Louvre Museum said on Monday, November 17, that it was closing one of its galleries as a precaution after an audit revealed structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building. The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics, will be closed while investigations are conducted into "certain beams supporting the floors of the second floor" above it, a statement said.
The announcement has no link to the recent robbery at the world's most visited art gallery, but is more unwelcome news for an institution that has faced severe criticism in France over its security shortcomings.
The museum's top administrator had warned publicly about conditions inside the former royal palace, which saw 8.7 million people visit its vast galleries last year. Louvre boss Laurence des Cars warned in a memo in January about a "proliferation of damage in museum spaces, some of which are in very poor condition." Some areas were "no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks," she added.
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