Historic closure at the Louvre: Workers demand better conditions in the face of mass tourism

Last Monday, June 16th, Paris experienced an unprecedented event: the Louvre Museum, arguably the most visited museum in the world, was unexpectedly closed due to a spontaneous strike called by its own staff. Museum workers decided to halt operations during opening hours, leaving thousands of tourists without access to its art collection. The protest was organized for several reasons, primarily employee exhaustion in the face of mass tourism , a lack of adequate staff to handle the influx of visitors, and working conditions that they consider unsustainable.

It's extremely rare for the Louvre to close its doors to the public. This has happened during wartime , during the pandemic, and during several strikes, including spontaneous walkouts due to overcrowding in 2019 and security fears in 2013.

The strike began during an internal meeting among museum staff, which includes gallery assistants, ticket sellers , and museum security. Employees complained that the Louvre , with its impressive daily visitor flow, survives thanks to an insufficient number of workers, which increases work-related stress and compromises the quality of service . In particular, they singled out the Estates Room (where the famous Mona Lisa attracts up to 20,000 visitors a day , opposite the equally famous painting The Wedding at Cana ) as one of the points of greatest congestion, resulting in an increasingly uncomfortable experience for tourists. This is not the first time that protests have taken place about this, and many people often express their discontent on social media by uploading photographs of hordes of people trying to get close to Leonardo da Vinci's painting .

The protest reflects a deeper structural crisis the Louvre is facing. Despite being a global cultural symbol, the museum faces enormous logistical and structural challenges that affect both the people who visit it and those who manage it. In January of this year, President Emmanuel Macron presented an ambitious €700 to €800 million renovation plan , which will include a new room for the Mona Lisa , new entrances, and measures to improve visitor circulation. However, employees feel these solutions are too late and insufficient to alleviate the immediate problems of overcrowding, understaffing, and the museum's deteriorating infrastructure.

Employees complained that, with its large daily flow of visitors, it survives thanks to an insufficient number of workers.

The Louvre workers' complaints are part of a broader context of protests against mass tourism in Europe. Several demonstrations against the impact of mass tourism on cities and their residents have taken place in major European cities like Barcelona. Activists point out that the tourism-based economic model not only affects the quality of life of local residents but also degrades the cultural experience, transforming iconic institutions into theme parks without the necessary resources to maintain the integrity of their collections.

On Monday, several tourists were forced to reschedule their visits . Despite the frustration, many tried to find the humor in the situation. “When you get close to the Mona Lisa , you don’t see a painting,” Ji-Hyun Park, 28, who had flown from Seoul to Paris, told CNN . “You see phones. You see elbows. You feel heat . And then, you’re pushed out.”

For its part, the Louvre administration has not shied away from its responsibility . However, workers have pointed out that these solutions are taking too long to materialize and that the Louvre continues to operate in precarious conditions , making the situation unsustainable in the long term. The lack of staff and working conditions also affect the safety of employees and visitors, an aspect that has become a crucial issue amid the strike.

Although Louvre management has announced that the museum will partially reopen in the coming days, workers have warned that they will not return to work until concrete and urgent measures are implemented to improve their working conditions. Negotiations between unions and museum management are already underway, and an agreement on the conditions that will allow for a definitive reopening is expected in the coming days. However, employees emphasize that this closure is only indicative of the broader problems affecting the museum, whose management needs a deeper transformation if it is to guarantee both the preservation of its valuable heritage and the safety and well-being of its workers.