Since October 30, 2020, the Louvre in Paris has been shut down to the public as part of the nation’s efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. While its doors are shuttered, those once overwhelmed museum workers are getting to do something they never thought they’d be able to do: renovate. The forced closure has also granted Louvre in Paris officials a golden opportunity to carry out long-overdue refurbishments that were simply not possible with nearly 10 million visitors a year.
Its still hard to say when the Paris museum will reopen, after being closed on October 30 in line with the French government’s virus containment measures. Before the pandemic, the workers were complaining that they were not able to control the crowd. During the first lockdown, all the Louvre activities came to a halt but the situation were better during the second lockdown with 250 of the museum employees remain fully operational.
Some 250 museum employees are hard at work adding new security systems, cleaning sculptures, checking inventories, checking over artifacts, reorganizing entrances, and conducting other necessary restorations to areas like the Egyptian Wing and the Grande Galerie. This way, when the museum does finally reopen, it will be like a brand-new experience for visitors.
Before the pandemic, the construction and renovation in the museum can only be done on Tuesday, which was the only off day. But now the construction is going on with a full week schedule.
Since the early days of the pandemic, the museum has been hard at work curating a rotating collection of educational opportunities for children and adults alike, along with plenty of virtual tours, that will satisfy your want for travel, for now.