A recent water leak at the Louvre Museum in Paris has damaged between 300 and 400 books and documents in the museum’s Egyptian antiquities department, museum officials have confirmed.
According to the museum’s deputy-administrator, Francis Steinbock, the leak was discovered on 26 November 2025, when an accidentally opened valve in the building’s heating and ventilation system caused water to seep through the ceiling of the library in the Egyptian wing.
The affected items — described as “Egyptology journals” and “scientific documentation” from the late 19th and early 20th centuries — are used by scholars and researchers, though none were classified as “precious books” or irreplaceable heritage objects.
The leak underlines longstanding concerns about the museum’s infrastructure; the pipe that burst had reportedly been identified as a problem for years, and repairs were scheduled only for September 2026.
Museum staff moved quickly to salvage what they could: volumes are being individually dried and dehumidified, to be restored by bookbinders and — if recovery succeeds — returned to the library shelves.
The leak follows a string of crises at the Louvre this year, including a high-profile jewel heist in October and structural issues that forced partial gallery closures — developments that have raised serious questions about maintenance and preservation of the museum’s collections.
English