After $102 million heist, a burst pipe soaks hundreds of rare books at the Paris Louvre Museum

About 300–400 Egyptology books were damaged in a pipe leak at the Louvre weeks after a Rs 847 crore jewel theft exposed deeper security and infrastructure gaps.

The world’s most visited museum is battling a different kind of threat, not thieves this time, but water. A burst pipe inside the Louvre last month damaged up to 400 rare books in its Egyptian antiquities department, just weeks after a Rs 847 crore jewel heist exposed deep security cracks at the Paris landmark.

The twin blows, one silent and slow, the other swift and spectacular, have reignited questions over the museum’s aging infrastructure and delayed repairs.

Specialist art website La Tribune de l’Art reported that around 400 rare reference books were affected by the leak, blaming deteriorating pipes, according to Reuters.

The water entered one of the three rooms of the Egyptian antiquities department’s library. The books are widely used by Egyptologists for research.

“Our count is still ongoing, but we have identified between 300 and 400 works,” Francis Steinbock, deputy administrator of the Le Louvre, told BFM TV on Sunday.

He said the damaged books were reference works, 'but not precious books.'

The leak comes at a moment of unusual scrutiny for the Louvre. On October 19, four burglars walked into the museum in broad daylight and made off with jewels worth $102 million, about Rs 847 crore, in one of the largest art thefts in recent French history.

Just a month later, in November, part of a gallery displaying Greek vases had to be shut after structural weaknesses were detected. Now, the flooded library has added another layer to the growing crisis.

Steinbock acknowledged that the faulty pipe had been identified years ago. But the fix is still nearly two years away.

According to his statement cited by Reuters, repair work for the damaged pipe is scheduled only for September 2026. The Egyptian department had earlier sought funding to secure the library and protect the collection from such risks but did not receive it.

The problems were already on record. In October, France’s public audit body, the Cour des Comptes, warned that the Louvre’s inability to modernise its infrastructure was being made worse by heavy spending on acquiring new artworks.

The report flagged a growing imbalance between expansion and basic upkeep, a risk now playing out in real time.

The October jewel heist exposed glaring security gaps. The November gallery closure raised structural alarm bells. Now the library flood is drawing attention to neglected maintenance.

Together, the three incidents have built a case that the Louvre’s vulnerabilities are no longer isolated but systemic, cutting across security, safety and conservation.

The Egyptian antiquities library supports scholars from around the world. Even if irreplaceable manuscripts were spared this time, restoration of water-damaged research material can take months, and sometimes years.

With repairs postponed until 2026, conservation experts warn that temporary fixes alone may not be enough to safeguard one of the world’s most important academic collections.