Hundreds of rare books were damaged when a pipe burst inside the Louvre’s Egyptian antiquities library, a setback that comes just weeks after the museum was rocked by a brazen jewel heist.
The museum’s deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, told BFM TV that the flooding happened in one of the three rooms housing the Egyptian antiquities library.
“We have identified between 300 and 400 works, the count is ongoing,” he said, adding that “no precious books” were lost. Many of the damaged items were periodicals and archaeology journals regularly used by Egyptologists.
Steinbock said staff were still assessing the full number of damaged books and had begun drying those soaked in the flooding, including dehumidifying them page by page with Buffard paper and modifying plants.
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The art site La Tribune de l’Art blamed the burst pipe on deteriorating infrastructure, reporting that the department had long sought funding to protect its collection. Steinbock acknowledged the issue had been known for years and said repairs were scheduled for September 2026.
The leak underscores the museum’s aging infrastructure just weeks after thieves stole crown jewels in a brazen daytime heist that exposed glaring security gaps at the museum.
A four-person team stormed the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery in broad daylight on Oct. 19, stealing jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) in less than eight minutes.
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Police arrested and charged four men suspected of being a part of the robbery crew in the subsequent weeks. A woman was also arrested, though she has denied involvement through her lawyer.
The stolen items have not been recovered. They include a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.
The emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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