Louvre closes gallery due to structural issue

The Louvre Museum in Paris announced that it will close one of its galleries due to structural weaknesses.

The Louvre Museum said the Campana gallery, which consists of nine rooms containing Greek ceramics, will remain closed while engineers examine “certain beams supporting the floors.”

The announcement adds to the museum’s unwelcome attention following a high-profile heist last month in which €88m (£76m; $102m) worth of jewelery was taken.

Criticism focused on lax security at the world’s most visited museum in the French capital.

Four people were arrested for theft, but the jewelry was not recovered.

The Louvre said in a statement on Monday that structural problems with the offices on the second floor — above the Campana Gallery in the museum’s Sully Wing — led to its decision.

“During these investigations, the Campana Gallery will be closed to the public as a precaution,” she added.

Three weeks after the jewel was stolen, a report was issued in which the Court of Auditors criticized managers who preferred to invest in new works of art and exhibitions rather than the basic maintenance and protection of the museum.

Based on its findings in the years 2018-2024, the report found that the museum spent €105.4m (£92.7m) on purchasing new works of art and €63.5m on exhibition space.

But at the same time, it spent only 26.7 million euros on maintenance work, and 59.5 million euros on restoring the palace building.

On the day of the robbery, the suspects arrived at 09:30 (07:30 GMT), just after the museum opened to visitors.

The suspects arrived in a stolen mechanical elevator mounted on a vehicle to access the Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo Gallery) via a balcony near the Seine River. The men used a disc cutter to break open display cases containing the jewelry.

Prosecutors said the thieves remained inside for four minutes and then escaped on two motorcycles that waited outside at 09:38 before switching to cars.

One of the stolen items – the crown – was dropped during the escape. The other seven gems were not found.

The fear is that they have already been transferred abroad, although the prosecutor in charge of the case said she remains hopeful they can be recovered intact.

The Paris prosecutor said that those arrested over the robbery that shocked France were all petty criminals and not professionals in organized crime.

Since the incident, security measures have been tightened around cultural institutions in France.

The Louvre even transferred some of its most valuable jewels to the Bank of France.