Louvre closes again due to staff strikes
Source: The Art Newspaper
The latest action piles more pressure the museum’s director, Laurence des Cars
Vincent Noce 19 January 2026
Staff at the Louvre museum in Paris staged another strike on Monday (19 January)—the ninth such action in a month. The sudden strike, held over concerns about pay, working conditions and infrastructure, forced the museum to close and increased pressure on its embattled director, Laurence des Cars.
“The [workers’] movement does not show any sign of weakness—the strike was voted unanimously by 350 employees,” Christian Galani, a representative of the CGT Union tells The Art Newspaper. This is the third day the museum has been completely closed since mid-December. On another six occasions it remained opened for half a day for restricted visits.
The Louvre normally welcomes about 30,000 visitors per day; according to the union representatives, each day of complete closure costs the museum about €400,000. The Louvre declined to comment when asked about its financial losses since mid-December.
Negotiations between the union and France’s culture ministry over wages are scheduled for next Thursday (29 January), with unions demanding that staff pay is aligned with that at other national museums and monuments. “There are differences [in salary] ranging from €70 to €200 euros monthly," Galani says.
Among the demands of the union representing workers at the Louvre is to drop a costly project to create a new entrance in favour of basic maintenance and infrastructure work
Photo: Florence Piot
Read more: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/19/louvre-closes-again-staff-strikes