At a meeting of 200 Louvre staffers from three unions, employees voted “with unanimity” in favor of a strike set to start on December 15, the Agence France-Presse reported Monday.
A strike notice was filed by the CGT, CFDT, and Sud unions to France’s Ministry of Culture and shared with the press. In it, the unions said “visiting the Louvre has become a real obstacle course” for visitors, describing the museum as being in “crisis” with “increasingly deteriorated working conditions.”
“The theft of 19 October 2025 highlighted shortcomings in priorities that had long been reported,” the letter reads.
The strike may lead to museum closures during the busy late-December holiday period.
It is just the latest expression of staff unrest at the museum this year. In January, director Laurence des Cars warned in a leaked memo of water leaks, overcrowding, and a “proliferation of damage in museum spaces.” Des Cars went on to call for a major overhaul of the museum, which is run by the state.
A week after the leaked memo, President Emmanuel Macron announced an extensive renovation plan dubbed the “Louvre New Renaissance,” which would provide the Mona Lisa a dedicated room with a timed-entry ticket, as well as a new entrance. The plan, to be completed by 2031, has been estimated to cost €700–800 million.
That proposal did little to alleviate the unrest. In June, the museum was forced to close when staff launched a wildcat strike to protest working conditions tied to overcrowding and understaffing.
Then, in October, the museum suffered an infamous robbery in which thieves made off with $102 million in French royal jewels. Staff were furious in the aftermath, booing des Cars in a meeting, and, according to some conflicting reports, staging a short wildcat strike the week after.
Union officials complained of staff reductions, while an official report found that the museum’s security systems were outdated and inadequate. The museum and France’s Culture Ministry have said they are working to install 100 new CCTV cameras, but they will not be operational until the end of 2026.
Late last month, the museum said it had to close its southern Sully wing after structural weaknesses were found in several beams. And this past Sunday, Francis Steinbeck, the deputy general administrator of the Louvre, told French broadcaster BFM-TV that a water leak had damaged as many as 400 books in the Egyptian antiquities department library.
Last week, the French Parliament announced its own investigation into the state of the Louvre.
