On November 27, the Louvre Museum suffered damage to numerous ancient artworks and documents due to a flood in the Egyptian antiquities library, caused by a pipe burst. The condition of these pipes was known to be dilapidated. This information was revealed on Sunday by the specialized publication La Tribune de l’Art and confirmed by BFMTV, which was able to review several photographs of the incident and an internal email from the Committee for Hygiene, Safety, and Working Conditions (CHSCT) detailing the event. In the message, sent the day after the incident, the author explained that «a valve supplying water to pipes above the documentation, which were known to be defective, caused a significant flood of dirty water that severely damaged artworks and documents and considerably deteriorated the workspaces of our colleagues». As a result, carpets were soaked and offices became unusable. Employees working that night managed to stop the leak before it reached an electrical box on a lower floor, which would have risked causing a «serious» accident, according to the CHSCT. Didier Rykner, head of La Tribune de l’Art, estimated that «around 400 artworks» were damaged, some of them in an «irrecoverable» state. Funding request Rykner stated that this incident was not a surprise because «for years» the department's staff had been requesting funds to protect the books from a potential pipe rupture, «whose dilapidated state is well-known». The Egyptian antiquities library, located in the Mollien pavilion, is part of a study and documentation service accessible only to conservators, historians, academics, and Louvre staff. Rykner complained that the allegedly deplorable state of these facilities contrasts with the 276,000 euros spent on essentially designer furniture for the offices of the Louvre's president-director, Laurence des Cars, her general administrator, and a few other employees who have their offices in that area. This all comes at a time when the Louvre is embroiled in controversy over the spectacular theft it suffered on October 19, when a group of thieves used a forklift to access the Apollo gallery in broad daylight and stole jewels from the French crown. All members of the commando have been arrested, but the jewels have not been recovered. Next Wednesday, the Senate will present the conclusions of the administrative investigation launched to clarify what happened and identify possible security failures.
