Louvre Workers Vote to Strike as Holidays Approach
46Dec. 9, 2025
Earlier today, some two hundred employees representing threeunionsat theLouvrevoted unanimously to begin rolling walkouts on December 15 in response to “insufficient staff numbers as well as technical failures and the building’s aging condition,” French dailyAgence France Pressereports. Thestrikethreatens to leave theParismuseum—the world’s most visited art institution—understaffed as the holidays approach, with an expected surge in visitor numbers. The unions, in filing their strike notice with the French ministry of culture, announced that they no longer wish to negotiate with Louvre director Laurence des Cars.
Staffers have in recent years been persistently vocal about maintenance and security issues, which have put valuable artworks at risk. In October, $102 million worth of the country’s prized crown jewels werestolen from the museumin broad daylight. The strike vote came a day after Louvre deputy general administrator Francis Steinbeck told French broadcaster BFM-TV that a leak had damaged hundreds of books in the museum’s Egyptian department library. TheArt Newspaperreported that an initial leak had been discovered last spring but that funding to repair it had been denied, while a $320,000 renovation of managerial offices above the library continued.
Overcrowding leading to poor working conditions has also been a hot-button issue, one that des Cars sought to address in 2023 by capping attendance at 30,000 visitors daily and raising ticket prices across the board. At the beginning of 2025, President Emmanuel Macron announced a plan to move the Mona Lisa to its own underground chamber, where visitors would be charged an additional fee to view it. The president also announced the construction of a new entrance and just days ago revealed an increase in ticket prices for most non-EU visitors.
Despite these measures, employees have contended that unfavorable working conditions have not changed and that infrastructure problems persist. Staff in June staged a wildcat strike, forcing the Louvre to close temporarily. Unions on October 30 issued a statement condemning the museum for its “top down management system, ignoring alerts from staff and spreading news distorting reality.” A week later, France’s court of auditors on November released a report on security at the Louvre, accusing the museum of prioritizing “visible and attractive” projects over upgrades to security. The French parliament on December 3 voted to conduct its own investigation into the institution.