Water from a burst pipe damaged between 300 and 400 books in the Louvre Museum’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities, officials confirmed Sunday.
Beefed-up security following the shocking heist of French crown jewels in October was no match for flooding that caused a pipe to burst and water to leak into the department’s library section, housed in the museum’s Mollien Wing, German magazine DW reported.
“We have recorded between 300 and 400 works [damaged],” Louvre deputy general administrator Francis Steinbock, told France’s BFM-TV. “The complete tally is underway.”
The works were from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Steinbock said, describing them as “extremely useful but by no means unique” in what DW said appeared to be an attempt to downplay the severity. Steinbock said the leak was discovered on Nov. 26.
The damaged works include periodicals and archaeology journals consulted regularly by Egyptologists, Louvre staffers and researchers, Steinbock told NBC News.
“No heritage artifacts have been affected by this damage,” Steinbock said, according to DW. “At this stage, we have no irreparable and definitive losses in these collections.”
The damaged books would be “dried, sent to a bookbinder to be restored, and then returned to the shelves,” he added.
French online magazine La Tribune de l’Art painted a different picture, claiming the “dirty water” leak damaged antique bindings badly enough that some were unrepairable. The flood also affected offices — making them unusable for the time being — and down to the next floor, where it came in contact with an electrical cabinet, risking a fire, the outlet said.
La Tribune de l’Art reported staff had been requesting funds from Steinbock to protect the books from leaks, since the pipes were in the ceiling above them. Steinbock told NBC News the pipe was located in one of the museum areas scheduled for a major ventilation and heating system renovation starting next September.
