On 17 November, Louvre management ordered the immediate closure of the Campana Gallery after a structural survey found what it called “particular fragility” in beams supporting offices above the nine-room suite of ancient Greek ceramics. “Closed, as a precaution and until further notice, the Campana Gallery,” said the management statement, according to the Argentine daily La Nación. Sixty-five employees working in the overlying offices were told to leave while engineers ran further tests.
The gallery, on the first floor of the Sully Wing, holds vases, kraters and hydriae assembled in the 19th century from the collection of Marquis Giampietro Campana. Officials offered no timetable for reopening.
Engineers traced the weakness to a concrete-and-metal framework installed during 1930s renovations. After receiving a technical report that warned of worsening defects, the museum’s chief architect urged an immediate shutdown, and staff normally assigned to the affected offices were reassigned until repairs could be planned.
The structural alarm came a month after a four-member gang carried out a jewel heist in the Apollo Gallery. On 19 October the thieves parked a truck at the façade, used a forklift and ladder to reach a window, cut through the frame, smashed two vitrines and escaped within minutes with eight royal jewels, including Empress Eugénie’s pearl diadem and a sapphire necklace and earrings once owned by Queen Maria Amelia. Investigators valued the haul at about €88 million (US $100 million). Three suspects were charged, and parts of the palace closed for two days while police examined the scene.
Internal documents had already warned that the building’s condition threatened both staff and collections. In January museum president Laurence des Cars circulated a memo noting “the increase in damage to the museum’s spaces, some of which are in very poor condition.” In a separate note the top administrative officer wrote that some areas “were no longer watertight, while others showed significant temperature fluctuations, putting the preservation of the artworks at risk.” After the October raid, des Cars admitted that outdoor video coverage was “very insufficient.”
A February audit by the Cour des Comptes criticized the museum for favoring high-profile acquisitions over maintenance, finding that only 39 percent of galleries had cameras and that modernizing security would cost about US $95 million, of which only US $3.5 million had been spent since 2018. The jewel theft was “a deafening wake-up call,” said court president Pierre Moscovici.
In January President Emmanuel Macron launched the New Renaissance of the Louvre, a program that assigned priority to restoration and technical upgrades. Museum leaders said they added 134 digital cameras and were progressing gradually, but cited pandemic pressures and preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as obstacles.
Visitors must now bypass the Campana rooms while engineers and curators try to stabilize a palace that, in the words of its own administration, is showing its age.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.