Musée du Louvre strikers call for €700 million renovation plans to be abandoned

Staff members of the Musée du Louvre in Paris went on strike this week, demanding that plans to renovate and add a new entrance to the museum be scrapped in favor of building maintenance.

The staff members staged a walkout on Monday, causing the world's most visited museum to be closed in the morning before partially opening in the afternoon.

Strikers called for museum director Laurence des Cars to scrap plans for an upcoming museum redesign reported The Art Newspaper. The walkout followed strikes that took place in December organised by union groups the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, the General Confederation of Labour and Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques.

Musée du Louvre renovation expected to cost €700 million

Named the New Renaissance project, French president Emmanuel Macron announced plans for the major renovation to the Musée du Louvre last January, which would add a second entrance and dedicated exhibition space for the museum's most popular painting, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Estimated to cost upwards of €700 million, including the €666 million entrance, the revamp is expected to be the largest update to the building since 1989, when IM Pei reorganised the attraction and added the iconic glass and steel pyramid to the museum's courtyard.

Musée du Louvre strikers called for the renovation to be scrapped in favour of a "focus on the technical works" that would safeguard staff members and the museum collections, according to The Art Newspaper.

A shortlist of five architecture teams to carry out the renovation was announced in October. In contention for the project are London studio AL_A. with Paris design agency NC Nathalie Crinière, Japanese studio Sou Fujimoto Architects, US architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro with French firm Architecturestudio, and US architecture studios Selldorf Architects and Studios Architecture.

Issues around the Musée du Louvre's security were thrown into the spotlight following a heist last October, when burglars stole €88 million worth of jewels, which are still missing.

Previous works prioritised "visible and attractive" projects

An audit that was completed before the heist, but published afterwards, revealed that the museum had consistently prioritised "visible and attractive" projects over improving maintenance and security in the French Renaissance-style building.

Shortly after the October heist took place, Dezeen reached out to the Musée du Louvre, asking if the robbery would impact the brief of the upcoming renovation plans. The museum declined to comment.

Dezeen recently rounded up its top 10 museums and galleries of 2025, which included Fondation Cartier in Paris, located in a renovated Haussmann-era block, and Foster + Partners' Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island.

The photo is by Mika Baumeister via Unsplash.

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