Louvre Museum shuts down Greek ceramics gallery due to 'fragile beams'

By Necva Tastan Sevinc

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Louvre Museum, the world's most visited art institution, has announced the temporary closure of its famed Campana Gallery, citing "the particular fragility of certain beams supporting the floors."

The decision comes less than a month after a high-profile art burglary at the museum.

The Campana Gallery, located on the first floor of the south wing along the Seine river, houses a vast collection dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics.

The closure affects nine rooms that display "thousands of vases offering a very comprehensive overview of ancient Greek ceramics," according to the museum, French news broadcaster BFMTV reported on Monday.

Named after the 19th-century collector Marquis Giampietro Campana, the gallery's collection includes "masterpieces of Greek ceramics," such as an owl-shaped aryballos, an Attic geometric krater, and a circular pyxis, some of which are over 2,500 years old.

The Sully wing, which contains the now-shuttered gallery, is slated for "restoration, modernization, and revitalization" under the "New Renaissance of the Louvre" plan, a €1.15 billion ($1.32 billion) initiative presented by French President Emmanuel Macron in January.

On Oct. 19, a group of thieves parked a stolen truck outside the Louvre, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, and broke into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms.

Within minutes, they fled on scooters with royal jewels, including an emerald and diamond necklace once given by Napoleon Bonaparte to his second wife, Austria’s Marie-Louise, and a diadem belonging to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III.

Four people have been charged over the theft so far, including a 37-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman whose DNA was reportedly found on the lift used in the heist.