The Louvre Museum, where priceless jewels were stolen on Sunday, October 19, “has failed to catch up on its backlog in deploying equipment intended to ensure the protection of artworks,” according to a report by the Court of Auditors. The Court, which examined the period between 2019 and 2024, refers to a “persistent delay” in this area.
The deployment of new surveillance equipment has focused “on a number of rooms, particularly the temporary exhibition spaces in the Napoleon hall (+150%), which explains why the total room coverage rate has only increased by 15%,” the Court of Auditors’ report points out. “And this, while 60% of the rooms in the Sully wing and 75% in the Richelieu wing are not covered by video surveillance systems,” the document further specifies.
“Obsolescence”
Furthermore, the Court estimates that “due to increasing visitor numbers, the obsolescence cycle of the museum’s technical equipment has accelerated significantly more than the pace of investments made by the institution to address it.” The report recalls that failures in technical infrastructure had notably led the world’s most visited museum to urgently close two rooms during two exhibitions in 2023-2024: “Naples in Paris” and the one dedicated to Claude Gillot, an 18th-century draftsman, illustrator, painter, and engraver.
Limited Investment
The Court also emphasizes that “while most of the preliminary studies for the necessary work have been carried out in recent years,” their “operational implementation appears uneven and generally very limited.” “The limited financial amounts committed relative to the estimated needs and the institution’s annual budget reflect this tendency to treat the launch of master plan-related work as an adjustment variable,” it adds.
In 2024, the upgrading of the fire protection system, which began in 2010, “is still not completed,” also laments the Court of Auditors’ report.