Newsletters
A major water leak at the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities on Nov. 27 damaged about 400 rare volumes and exposed ongoing maintenance problems that staff say they have warned about for years, according to a report by the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Offices in the area were also affected and rendered temporarily unusable.
The force of the water was so strong that it not only soaked the carpet but also seeped through to the floor below, reaching an electrical cabinet and posing a serious fire risk. The incident came only days after a smaller leak occurred in the same location the previous Tuesday.
According to the French channel BFMTV, the flooding was caused by a malfunction in one of the valves supplying the pipes that run directly above the book storage area.
The report of the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee, known as CHSCT, stated:
“A faulty valve above the documents caused a major spill of dirty water, resulting in severe damage to the books and records and a deterioration of the working environment.”
While leaks are not uncommon in historic buildings, staff say this disaster was anything but unexpected.
For years, the department had been requesting funds from Deputy General Administrator Francis Steinbock to protect the collections from the deteriorating pipes running through the false ceilings, an issue well known to the museum’s technical services, which have documented repeated minor leaks.
Requests for external contractor support to move the collections into a vacant, better-secured space were also denied.
A similar operation had already been carried out for the library of the Byzantine and Eastern Christian Antiquities Department.
Likewise, repeated proposals to purchase specialized furniture for storing prized works, such as Description de l’Egypte or Karl Richard Lepsius’s Denkmaler aus Agypten und Athiopien, were rejected.
Although these volumes were not damaged in the latest flood, they remain exposed under windows and protected only by bubble wrap, leaving them vulnerable to severe weather.
The library sits in the Pavillon Mollien, accessed through the Cour Lefuel in the Denon Wing, only a short distance from the offices of Louvre senior management. This proximity has not gone unnoticed by staff, who point to the €276,000 ($300,000) renovation of the general management offices, primarily spent on designer furniture, according to the French Court of Auditors, as evidence of skewed priorities.
The contrast, they argue, is stark: while a few thousand euros, roughly $2,000 to $5,400, could have safeguarded essential scientific collections, substantial sums were allocated to office comfort for top executives, including the museum’s president-director, Laurence des Cars.
Staff stress that even these modest preventive measures would have been temporary solutions. The core problem lies in the aging piping system, whose long-standing malfunction could have led to consequences far worse than the destruction of books.
Despite safety being repeatedly presented by management as a priority, the latest incident deepens concerns about the Louvre’s broader maintenance strategy. The Court of Auditors has already warned of an upcoming “wall of investment” in the ambitious Louvre Colonnade expansion project, plans for a new grand entrance and large exhibition halls, ironically located in an area prone to flooding.
The leak adds to a troubling list of recent incidents that critics say illustrate the museum’s drift from its core responsibilities: the theft of the Crown Jewels, the prolonged closure of the Campana Gallery and nearby offices, and now the flooding of an essential scholarly library.
For many inside the institution, these events reinforce a simple message: the Louvre must refocus on restoring and maintaining the historic palace that houses its collections and reconsider whether its current management is fit to safeguard the world-renowned museum.
1 min read
