Overview
- The leak, discovered on November 26 above the Pavilion Mollien library, soaked Egyptology journals and scientific files from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that will be dried, restored and rebound.
- The Louvre says the incident stemmed from an accidental opening of a valve in a long-obsolete heating and ventilation hydraulic system scheduled for replacement starting September 2026.
- An internal investigation has been opened to establish the precise causes and responsibilities after the system had been out of service for months.
- An internal CHSCT email described dirty water flooding stacks, rendering offices unusable and narrowly missing an electrical hazard, and said staff had requested repairs for years.
- La Tribune de l’Art’s Didier Rykner estimated roughly 400 affected items and called some irrecoverable, a characterization the museum disputes as it stresses no irreversible losses.