Water leaf in the Zimabue exhibition of the Louvre and lands near the master's greatest early painting

Water from a hailstorm that is entered in the Musée du Louvre on Saturday (May 3rd) and almost dripped on Cimabue's Maestà, Probably the largest early Western European painting. Dating of 1280-85, it is the heart of the exhibition A new look at Cimabue: on the origins of Italian painting (January 22-12 May). I was in the gallery and noticed the drops before the guards were alerted.

A Louvre spokesman confirmed The art line Today that the museum “experienced some water infiltration in areas where the glass roofs are located”. It is important that “no work was damaged”.

Some drops of water actually fell on the basis of the nearby Three acolyths (1264-67), through the studio of the sculptor Nicola Pisano. He is considered the founder of modern sculpture. The work is borrowed from the Museo Nazionale Del Bargello in Florence.

Drops fell about one meter from Duccio di Buonineregna's. Madonna the Franciscan (1285-88). Fortunately, this little painting, which was borrowed from Sienas Pinaceca Nazionale, is in a glass housing.

A violent hailstorm hit the central Paris at around 4 p.m. on May 3. At 4:19 p.m. I saw water that fell from the High Ceiling in the Salle Rosa von Louvre (room 717, directly in front of the famous Grande Gallery), where the Cimabue exhibition was held.

The guards were surprised when they saw how I looked on the floor on the floor, only one meter in front of the elevated platform that supports Cimabue's Maestà (The title “Majesty” in Italian refers to the virgin and Christ, which is surrounded by Engel.)

The picture is 4.2 m high and 2.8 m wide and is still in its original decorated frame with painted figures. It would be extremely difficult to be logistically and visually pushy to protect it with glass, and it is therefore displayed without glazed protection. The work is more than twice as high as a big man, so the guards couldn't do anything to ensure emergency protection.

The Maestà is on wooden panels, which would make it particularly susceptible to water damage. The leak on the ceiling was only two meters from where the water fell, the impact on the Maestà could have been catastrophic.

The painting was acquired by the Louvre in 1812 after it was looted by Napoleon of the San Francesco church in Pisa. Last year it was thoroughly restored for the first time in almost 200 years, and this was the main reason why this exhibition was now held. The painted paint was removed, which used the painting closer to its original appearance and unveiled the dazzling blue of the maiden's coat.

The nearby marble pisano sculpture of the Three acolythswhich is almost 1 m high was not in a showcase case. Water damaged the adjacent label and some drops fell on the stone base, which was probably made later than in the sculpture of the 13th century. It is unclear whether a few drops could have fallen on the Pisano, but since it is hopefully stone, damage would have been minimal.

This was what they could do with regard to the emergency campaign, and two of them later have a small tarpaulin over the sculpture like an umbrella. Apart from that, it seemed little to be as if the employees concerned could draw their attention to their security manager. At least initially there was no sign of a conservator.

The exhibition was closed to the public at 4:51 p.m., just over half an hour after the drops of the drops. A Louvre spokesman says that this should “allow firefighters to inspect the roofs”. They added that “the cause was immediately identified: a damaged glass seal”. The exhibition was reopened on Sunday morning as usual.

No drops seem to have fallen directly onto the Cimabue or Duccio, and hopefully the Pisano was not caused by any damage.

The leak on the roof supports the concerns of the President of the Louvre, Laurence de Cars, in January in a confidential memorandum to the French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati that the building needs urgent and extensive renovation.

De Cars, who has managed the Louvre since 2021, added that some areas of the building complex are “no longer waterproof”. However, this does not explain why what a vulnerable space now appears has been housed with an exhibition with loans from foreign museums, especially for a show with such fragile and important works. This includes some of the earliest masterpieces in Western European painting.

The most important works of two of the most important museums in Italy were threatened with damage. Of the 44 works in the Cimabue exhibition, which was based on comprehensive research that significantly expanded our knowledge of the artist, only six pieces come from the Louvre's own collection. Such monographic shows depend heavily on loans from international museums.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the Louvre on January 28 and promised that the museum would tune in a large restoration project that could possibly cost around € 750 million. Completion is likely to be many years away in the 2030s.

Hopefully three masterpieces of fleeing will suffer on this occasion. However, the incident will exert pressure on the Louvre and the French government to protect your art and continue with the planned restoration of your building.