Water leak at Louvre museum damages around 400 works in Egyptian department

A water leak in late November damaged several hundred works in the Egyptian department of the Louvre.

The Paris museum announced the news on Sunday, weeks after the jewelry theft that raised concerns about the Louvre's infrastructure and security.

The museum's deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, said the leak was discovered on November 26 and damaged up to 400 works. Among them were Egyptological journals and scientific documentation that were used by researchers.

Steinbock stressed that the damaged items date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are extremely useful, but he justified it by adding that they are by no means unique.

"No heritage objects have been affected by this damage. At this stage, we have no irreparable and definitive loss in these collections," he said.

The incident follows a robbery in October in which a gang of four men raided the world's most visited art museum in broad daylight, stealing an estimated $102 million worth of jewelry in just seven minutes before fleeing. It led to a debate over the museum's aging infrastructure.