Staff at the Louvre museum in Paris staged another strike on Monday (19 January)—the ninth such action in a month. The sudden strike, held over concerns about pay, working conditions and infrastructure, forced the museum to close and increased pressure on its embattled director, Laurence des Cars.
“The [workers’] movement does not show any sign of weakness—the strike was voted unanimously by 350 employees,” Christian Galani, a representative of the CGT Union tells The Art Newspaper. This is the third day the museum has been completely closed since mid-December. On another six occasions it remained opened for half a day for restricted visits.
The Louvre normally welcomes about 30,000 visitors per day; according to the union representatives, each day of complete closure costs the museum about €400,000. The Louvre declined to comment when asked about its financial losses since mid-December.
Negotiations between the union and France’s culture ministry over wages are scheduled for next Thursday (29 January), with unions demanding that staff pay is aligned with that at other national museums and monuments. “There are differences [in salary] ranging from €70 to €200 euros monthly," Galani says.
The unions also demand that the project to create a new €666m entrance to the museum, as well as a subterranean complex around the Mona Lisa and an exhibition hall, is dropped, and priority given to basic maintenance and restoring infrastructure.
The strikes come in the wake of the dramatic theft of the crown jewels in October. They also follow a series of damning reports on the redevelopment plans and the management of the Louvre.
The Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars is under scrutiny for her style of management. Curators within the sculpture department have signed a petition criticising what they describe as the “unfair removal” of the department’s head, Sophie Jugie. “The days of Des Cars [as director] are numbered”, a source close to the French government, who wanted to remain anonymous, tells The Art Newspaper.
Responding to calls for her departure at parliamentary hearings and in speeches to staff, Des Cars has remained combative, saying she “bears the responsibility to launch” the plan for the new entrance, which is expected to take at least 12 years to complete. The Louvre was approached for comment.