When its employees joined the wave of French protest strikes against the controversial pension reform plans on Monday, the Louvre Museum in Paris was closed to visitors.
Numerous Louvre staff members blocked the entry, causing the museum to declare a temporary closure.
In front of the famous pyramid of the Louvre, where President Emmanuel Macron had celebrated his election triumph in 2017, the protesters carried banners and flags.
They called for the new pension law, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64, to be repealed.
The CGT union’s showbiz, media, and entertainment chapter tweeted a picture of the Mona Lisa with the caption, “64 it’s a No,” with an elderly and wrinkly face.
The action takes place as another statewide demonstration against the measure is set for Tuesday and as Macron meets with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to discuss the next steps.
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The staff objected a day earlier because Tuesdays are always closed at the Louvre.
Regarding the artistic embargo, some tourists exhibited stoicism.
Britney Tate, a 29-year-old PhD student from California, said: “If you firmly believe that this will bring some change, there’s plenty of other things that we can see in Paris.”
Others who had driven tens of thousands of miles expressed their displeasure more loudly.
Karma Carden, a visitor from Fort Myers, Florida, said, “We’re going to respect their strike tomorrow, but to do this today, it’s just heartbreaking.”
“I understand why they’re upset, but (it’s bad) to do this to people from around the world who’ve traveled from around the world for this and paid thousands of dollars,” said one visitor. “We knew that Versailles would not be open because of the protest, but we knew that the Louvre was open.”
