The Louvre’s horrible, no good, very bad autumn continues. On Monday, the museum announced that it was temporarily closing some offices and one public gallery after a recent audit found structural weaknesses in some beams in the building.
In a statement, the museum said that a technical report submitted last week found “particular fragility of certain beams holding up the floors” of the second level of the the Louvre’s southern Sully wing because of “recent and unforeseen developments.” Experts are currently assessing the damage.
The affected area includes offices housing 65 employees; they have since been relocated while work is ongoing. The Louvre also closed the gallery below the offices, the Campana Gallery, which exhibits antique Greek ceramics as a precaution, the Associated Press reported.
Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, the chief minister of King Henri IV, who ruled from 1589 to 1610, the wing is one of the oldest parts of the museum. It directly connects to the Cour Carrée where some remnants of the Medieval Louvre Castle remain. The wing was one of the areas set to be renovated under French president Emmanuel Macron’s Louvre revamp plan announced in January.
The closure of the gallery comes just one month after the Louvre suffered a heist of France’s crown jewels, estimated to be worth $102 million. Amid public outrage over the security failure, the museum—and the French government—have been working to assess the integrity and security of the museum to determine how the theft occurred and how to prevent future incidents. Last week’s audit follows a scathing report released earlier this month detailing how museum leadership prioritized high-profile acquisitions over security upgrades.
