A year has passed since the spectacular burglary of the Louvre, often described as the "heist of the century", on October 19, 2025. The management of the Parisian public establishment is still trying to plug the security flaws revealed that day, a titanic challenge for the most visited museum in the world, dilapidated and weakened by excessive attendance.
Almost non-existent perimeter cameras, underassessment of the risks of intrusion, chronic under-equipment... The reports, hearings and parliamentary commissions which followed the spectacular theft of eight Crown jewels led to the same observation of a bloodless and vulnerable museum.
An avalanche of damage
One figure, among many others, sums up the security underinvestment: at the time of the burglary, the Louvre had only spent 3 of the 83 million euros for the "security master plan" supposed to modernize its facilities. The museum “favored visible and attractive operations”, criticized the Court of Auditors. “This museum, to bring it completely up to standard (...), we would almost have to close it permanently,” Rachida Dati, then Minister of Culture, even said at the end of 2025.
This unprecedented crisis, which was coupled with a staff strike and an avalanche of damage (water leak, ticket fraud, etc.), precipitated the fall of the president of the Louvre Laurence des Cars and led to a series of emergency measures. The museum with a budget of 330 million euros (nearly a hundred of which was matched by the State) installed perimeter cameras, secured its access and undertook the renovation of its security PC, the state of which had stunned parliamentarians.
Additional heating in the president's office
“The deployment of the security master plan is progressing quickly,” Christophe Leribault, the art historian who arrived in February at the head of the Louvre, assured AFP today, emphasizing, however, the “complexity” of carrying out this work while keeping the museum open to the public. Every year, nearly 9 million visitors walk the paths of the Louvre, whose state of dilapidation is no longer disputed by anyone. “Despite its imposing majesty, despite the daily commitment of its teams, it is a Louvre on its last legs,” Christophe Leribault declared in June to the Senate, referring in particular to the “investment wall” which stands in front of the museum.
The needs are widespread by his own admission; the president of the Louvre only has auxiliary heating in his office, although this is prohibited in administrative premises. On security, the museum has committed to investing around 20 million euros per year by 2032 and has had, since July, a "Mr. Security" responsible for coordinating the museum's security.
“The Louvre needs a cultural change on security which still remains to be done and will take several years,” Laurent Lafon, who is closely following the issue in his capacity as president of the Senate culture committee, told AFP. “The leaders of the Louvre must integrate the idea that security is a priority, which was no longer the case.” “The trauma of the burglary is still there,” Valérie Baud, CFDT representative at the museum, told AFP.
The State and the management are planning on the vast modernization project of the museum, launched in January 2025 by Emmanuel Macron and called Louvre - New Renaissance, a project worth one billion euros which notably provides for a new room for the Mona Lisa, but is not unanimous. “We can increase security without going through this project which does not meet the priorities and has as its horizon an unsustainable increase in attendance,” believes Christian Galani, CGT delegate.
The Louvre must find 360 million euros
According to Christophe Leribault, this plan constitutes on the contrary "the only way" to ensure the future of the Louvre. “Everything is intertwined, everything is linked: the repair of buildings while respecting heritage, the adaptation of the museum to climate change and the uses of our times, the desaturation of the visitor route to make the museum breathe,” he pleads in his response to AFP.
The financial equation is not simple. To finance this project, the Louvre must find 360 million euros from patrons and will not be able to turn to the State in an ultra-tight budgetary context. “It’s a hell of a challenge and I don’t know if I’ll succeed,” Christophe Leribault said in June.
