If you’re traveling to Paris in the near future, there is some bad news and some good news. The bad news: you likely won’t be able to see the Mona Lisa or any of the masterpieces hanging inside the Louvre, because it’s currently shut down. The good news: You’ll get to see a strong labor movement at work. On Monday, staff at the world’s most-visited museum went on strike, forcing the museum to close its doors over concerns about the effects of mass tourism, according to the Associated Press.
The shutdown followed a weekend of protests against tourism that spread across Europe. In Spain, travelers hanging out at popular tourist destinations were drenched by demonstrators armed with water guns. Mass demonstrations also broke out in Mallorca, Venice, Italy, and Portugal’s capital of Lisbon, per the AP, with locals leading chants like “Everywhere you look, all you see are tourists.” The objection the residents have to the visitors is primarily their role in causing an affordability crisis, leading to things like housing costs skyrocketing as homes are sought after to be listed on Airbnb and other short-term rental markets.
Overcrowding issues have plagued other hot spots across Europe, which are increasingly dominated by folks looking for a picturesque view, perhaps not realizing that their very presence is eroding the beauty. German publications Deutsche Welle recently highlighted how destinations popularized on social media like Instagram and TikTok have become overrun by visitors, pushing out locals and making the beautiful sights and sounds less accessible to others.
In the wake of that growing movement, workers at the Louvre reportedly spontaneously decided to walk out during a standard staff meeting on Monday, per the AP. Gallery attendants, ticket takers, and security all refused to operate their posts, complaining that the crowds have become unmanageable and the museum is understaffed.
According to a report from The Guardian, the Louvre sees about nine million people pass through its doors every year, and about 20,000 people per day stop to see the Mona Lisa. That foot traffic has gotten so untenable that it was announced earlier this year that the Louvre would be redesigned to give Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece a room of its own to help mitigate the impact of so many people wanting to stop and take a picture of the painting.
A common refrain from people visiting the painting is that the experience is underwhelming because of how quickly you’re ushered through the room with hundreds of others. “You don’t see a painting,” Ji-Hyun Park, a traveler from Seoul, South Korea, told the Associated Press. “You see phones. You see elbows. You feel heat. And then, you’re pushed out.”
The painting’s popularity has long been an issue for the museum, to the point that it has been suggested that the painting be taken down or moved. But with no standalone room ready yet, the painting still hangs in the museum. And with staff saying they simply aren’t dealing with it, thousands of tourists with tickets in hand got left hanging on Monday, unable to see anything inside the glass pyramid. It’s unclear when the museum will return to full staff and functionality, which will still leave the actual workers overwhelmed, but will get the tourism bucks flowing again.