Louvre Museum’s Staff Strikes Because of Too Many Visitors

Many staff of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, performed a 4 hour long strike on Monday, June 16, detaining visitors from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. due to overtourism of Mona Lisa’s home.

On Monday morning, when the daily lines of tourists formed in front of the Louvre Museum, waiting to enter the Louvre Museum to see some of the world’s most famed art, like the Mona Lisa, they were met with disappointing news. The museum would not open for several hours because of a strike. The Louvre reopened at 2:30 p.m. when some staff returned to work.

That morning, the workers had their monthly meeting. Christian Galani, a spokesman in the C.G.T.-Culture labor union, said in an interview that at the end of their monthly meeting, the staff members decided to perform a strike. “We didn’t plan to go on strike, but the people are so exhausted, they can’t support the conditions getting worse.”

Galani said that in the last couple decades, over 200 jobs at the Louvre have been lost, and though President Emmanuel Macron of France promised to remodel the museum in January, so far nothing has happened, and the workers are stressed. “Too many visitors… rooms are in very bad condition,” he said. “It’s very difficult for the workers.”

The Louvre has struggled with overcrowding for a long time. In early 2023, the museum limited daily attendance by about one-third to 30,000 people. Before the change, 45,000 people a day flocked through the museum doors.

The Louvre is home to more than 33,000 works of sculptures, paintings and antiques. The most famous piece is the Mona Lisa. Each day, thousands of tourists enter the gallery with the painting, making staff and visitors stressed and full of headaches.

Because of this, President Macron announced in early 2025 that the Mona Lisa would move to its own exhibition space underneath the Cour Carrée, a courtyard. “The Louvre will be redesigned and restored to become the epicenter of art history for our country and beyond,” he said.

The strike at the Louvre initiated many protests in Italy, Portugal and Spain, where strikers complained about mass tourism in European cities. In Spain, some protesters held signs reading “Tourists go home” and “Tourism is stealing from us.” The protests are also striking about overtourism.

The recent strike at the Louvre highlights the growing tension between artifact preservation and mass tourism. As the museum fights with overtourism, understaffed operations, and old buildings, the concerns raised by its employees point to deeper systemic issues. With the proposed relocation of the Mona Lisa and stronger staff support—the world’s most visited museum will compromise both its workers’ well-being and the quality of the visitor experience.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/louvre-museum-paris-closed-lines-delay-2bbf9be4f49de739fd14dd4d908e4d72

https://www.thecut.com/article/louvre-museum-paris-shut-down-staff-strike.html