Water leak strikes Louvre gallery where most valuable artworks are housed

A water leak struck the Louvre Museum's Denon gallery on Thursday evening, affecting an area displaying valuable paintings but sparing Leonardo Da Vinci's iconic Mona Lisa.

A spokesperson for the Paris institution confirmed the leak had been contained by early Friday morning, with the gallery expected to reopen shortly.

The incident occurred in room 707, home to works by 19th-century French artist Charles Meynier and 16th-century Italian Bernardino Luini. The leak caused damage to a ceiling painted by Meynier.

This marks the second such incident in under three months for the Louvre, which has faced a series of recent challenges.

Earlier on Thursday, prosecutors in Paris announced that nine people were detained in connection with a suspected decade-long ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre.

The alleged operation is believed to have defrauded the institution of more than €10m (£8.7m) over the past decade.

The arrests took place on Tuesday.

They are part of a judicial investigation that commenced after the Louvre lodged a formal complaint in December 2024.

Two museum employees, a number of tour guides and an individual suspected of being the mastermind behind the extensive fraud were among those taken into custody, the prosecutors' office.

The museum alerted investigators about the frequent presence of two Chinese tour guides suspected of bringing groups of Chinese tourists into the museum by fraudulently reusing the same tickets multiple times for different visitors.

Other guides were later suspected of similar practices.

It follows the high-profile heist of the museum on October, when a gang of thieves stole several items of jewellery from the venue.

The robbery gang's haul of loot was worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million) — a monetary value that didn't include their huge historical value to France.

The thieves took less than eight minutes to force their way into the museum and leave, using a freight lift to reach the building's window. Footage from museum cameras showed that the two who broke into the ornate Apollo Gallery used grinders to cut into jewellery display cases.

Employees at the Louvre also went on strike in December, with the heist highlighting long-standing concerns that crowding and thin staffing were undermining security and working conditions at a museum that welcomes millions of visitors each year.