Thousands of visitors to the Louvre Museum in Paris were today in hours of lines outside the institution, June 16, when the museum closes part of the day due to a non-planned staff strike. The spontaneous work stop, which was involved Gallery visitors and reception and security staffFocused on claims of poor working conditions exacerbated by overcrowding and a staff shortage.
The Wildcat strike came after the French President Emmanuel Macron announced earlier this year that the Louvre will undergo a major upgrade of decades that would tackle a whole series of problems, including water leaks, deteriorating infrastructure and deteriorating the congestion of the crowd that the museum has long teased.
The Louvre, which usually opens at 9 am, remained closed to the public until 2.30 pm, a spokesperson for the museum told the museum New York Times. A message On the website of the Louvre, visitors warned that “the museum can open later.” It is unclear which employees went back to work. Per Typical operating hoursThe Louvre will be closed to the public on Tuesday and will be opened again on Wednesday.
“We were not going to strike, but people are so exhausted, they cannot support the circumstances that get worse and worse,” said Christian Galani, a representative for the general confederation of labor culture (CGT culture) trade union, the said the Time.
Hyperallergic has asked for comments from the Louvre, CGT culture and the Ministry of Culture.
As with many other European cultural sites and institutions, overcrowding is one of the most important problems that defuse the French museum. Last year the Louvre received 8.7 million visitors – 77% of whom countries came outside of France. In 2023, the management of the museum announced that it would save daily visitors of 30,000.
The radical renovation is intended to tackle the climbing visitor rates by creating an independent gallery space for the “Mona Lisa” (the most popular artwork of the museum, which attracts swarms of visitors every day) and adding more inputs; However, refused museum staff have spoken that the timeline of the project for completion in the future is too far.
“Our teams are now under pressure” Associated Press. “It’s not just about art – it’s about the people who protect it.”
