France’s flagship Louvre Museum has experienced yet more damage to its collection; this time historic works were ruined by a water leak Water leak damages hundred of historic books AFP, Reuters Compounding embarrassment over the state of the Louvre’s security system, upkeep and bureaucracy are now in the spotlight in the wake of a foreseeable water leak that damaged hundreds of historically important books.
The glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris, France on Dec 1, 2025
France’s flagship Louvre Museum has experienced yet more damage to its collection; this time historic works were ruined by a water leakImage: Cavan Images/IMAGO
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Officials at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, on Sunday confirmed that a large collection of historically important books had been damaged in November as a result of a water leak.
The leak affected the Mollien Wing of the museum, where the Department of Egyptian Antiquities is located.
What do we know about the Louvre water leak?
Deputy Administrator Francis Steinbock downplayed the leak, discovered on November 26, saying that “300 to 400 works” from the late 19th and early 20th centuries had been damaged. Steinbock went on to describe the historic books as “extremely useful but by no means unique.”
“No heritage artefacts have been affected by this damage,” said Steinbock, adding, “at this stage, we have no irreparable and definitive losses in these collections.”
Steinbock said the damaged books will be “dried, sent to a bookbinder to be restored, and then returned to the shelves.”
Those claims were directly rebutted in an article on the incident that was published on Saturday in the specialist online magazine La Tribune de l’Art.
The article said that some book bindings had been irreparably damaged and further accused museum administrators of ignoring repeated requests from the Egyptian department for building improvements and other measures to protect the collection.
