Louvre museum in Paris closes gallery due to structural weakness

Paris’ Louvre Museum said on Monday that it was closing one of its galleries as a precaution after an audit revealed structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building.

The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics, will be closed while investigations are conducted into “certain beams supporting the floors of the second floor” above it, a statement said.

The announcement has no link to the recent robbery at the world’s most visited art gallery, but is more unwelcome news for an institution that has faced severe criticism in France over its security shortcomings.

A four-strong gang raided the Louvre last month with an extendable ladder and angle grinders in broad daylight, making off with jewellery worth an estimated US$102 million in front of startled visitors.

Before the break-in, the museum’s top administrator had warned publicly about conditions inside the former royal palace, which saw 8.7 million people visit its vast galleries last year.

Louvre boss Laurence des Cars warned in a memo in January about a “proliferation of damage in museum spaces, some of which are in very poor condition”.