Flood Damages Hundreds of Books at Louvre

(MENAFN) A significant water leak inundated the Egyptian antiquities section of Paris’ Louvre Museum on Nov. 27, ruining roughly 400 books and renewing worries about the aging facilities of the world’s most-visited museum in France, just weeks after a bold daytime jewel heist.

According to La Tribune de l’Art, which initially covered the story, the flooding was not entirely unexpected.

For several years, the department had repeatedly appealed to Louvre Deputy Director General Francis Steinbock for funding to either move the collections or implement protective measures, citing that deteriorating pipes in the suspended ceilings posed an increasing hazard.

Those appeals were declined, as was a plan to obtain suitable furniture to protect rare works such as Karl Richard Lepsius’s Description of Egypt.

The report also indicates that assistance from an external contractor to transfer the books to a safer location, made possible by another department’s library relocation, was reportedly denied.
Although the most valuable volumes avoided damage, the article notes they remain positioned beneath windows and shielded only by bubble wrap, leaving them vulnerable to storms known to cause serious leaks in that section of the building.

The water intrusion also led to the closure of offices affected in the Mollien Pavilion and followed a smaller similar incident in the same area just a week earlier.

This event follows a brazen October 19 theft, when a group of thieves parked a stolen truck outside the Louvre, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, and forced entry into one of the museum’s most lavish rooms.

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