It's a cry of alarm. The Louvre's buildings are reaching a "worrying level of obsolescence," warned the institution's president, Laurence des Cars, in a confidential memo sent to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, on January 13 and first reported by Le Parisien. France's leading museum may have welcomed 8.7 million visitors by 2024, but the building's foundations are dilapidated. "Some spaces are no longer watertight, while others are experiencing worrying temperature variations, endangering the conservation of works," points out des Cars in the three-page document, which Le Monde has seen.

Le Monde has learned that rainfall on Wednesday, January 22, caused seepage in the Grande Galerie, one of the museum's most visited sections, forcing staff to remove works. In October 2024, downpours had flooded the museum's medieval moat, which is usually dry. The outdated pipes can also burst at any time. In November 2023, an exploding water pipe caused the cancellation of the "Claude Gillot, Comedies, Fables & Arabesques" exhibition in the Pavillon de l'Horloge. Under the pyramid, staff and visitors alike suffer from the greenhouse effect in hot weather. As for the recently restored Napoleon III apartments, the absence of air conditioning means they have to be closed during increasingly frequent heatwaves.

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