Security-weakened Paris Louvre increases prices for tourists to fund renovations

The Louvre in Paris is raising ticket prices for non-European Union tourists to help finance renovations of the museum, whose deteriorating state was laid bare by the theft of crown jewels last month.

Visitors from outside the EU, including Britons, will have to pay €32 ($37) from January 14, a 45 per cent rise, a spokesperson said on Friday.

Four burglars made off in daylight with jewels worth $102 million on October 19, exposing glaring security gaps at the world's most visited museum. In November, structural weaknesses prompted the partial closure of one of its wings.

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The museum's administration, urged by France's state auditor to prioritise security over acquisitions, said last week it would install 100 external cameras by the end of 2026 while pressing on with a six-year renovation project.

The measure was announced by President Emmanuel Macron earlier this year and has now been approved by the Louvre governing board.

Earlier this month, the museum's director Laurence des Cars announced more than 20 emergency measures have started being implemented following the raid. She said the Louvre’s most recent overhaul in the 1980s is technically obsolete.

The cost for the "Louvre New Renaissance” plan is estimated at up to €800 million ($933 million), to modernise infrastructure, ease crowding and give the famous Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031.

Nearly nine million visitors passed through the museum's doors last year, almost three-quarters of them foreign. The price increase is expected to bring in an extra €15 million to €20 million a year. The main nationalities visiting include those from the US (13 per cent), China (6 per cent) and Britain (5 per cent) who are affected by the price increases.

Other museums such as the Palace of Versailles, built in the 17th century for King Louis XIV, the Gothic-style Sainte Chapelle chapel, the Paris Opera House and Chambord Chateau, in the Loire Valley, are also expected to raise prices next year.

On October 19, thieves forces their way through a window into the Apollo Gallery with the help of a freight lift, using power tools to cut display cases and leave with the loot on scooters in less than eight minutes.

The jewels have not yet been recovered. Police have arrested four suspected burglars and others suspected of complicity. On Tuesday, the Paris prosecutor announced four more arrests in connection with the heist.