Louvre Hit by €10M Ticket Fraud
The world's most-visited museum faces a decade-long counterfeit ticket scheme that defrauded the Louvre of €10 million. Museum officials contend such fraud is "statistically inevitable" given the scale of operations, though the revelation may prompt new security measures and visitor protocols.
- The scheme, which specifically targeted Chinese tour groups, involved tour guides reusing the same tickets for multiple entries. - Nine individuals were detained in connection with the fraud, including two Louvre employees, several tour guides, and the suspected mastermind of the operation. - Investigators utilized surveillance and wiretaps, which confirmed the repeated use of tickets and a strategy of splitting up tour groups to evade required "speaking fees" for guides. - Authorities have seized over €957,000 in cash and €486,000 from bank accounts, with suspicions that some of the illicit profits were invested in real estate in France and Dubai. - The Louvre first filed a complaint in December 2024 after becoming suspicious of two frequently visiting Chinese tour guides. - This fraud case is one of several recent security challenges for the museum, which also experienced a high-profile theft of French crown jewels in October 2025. - In response to this and other types of ticket fraud, which cost the museum a reported €4 million from illegal pass resales in 2023 alone, the Louvre has been developing a structured anti-fraud plan. - To combat the scheme, the museum has already implemented a new protocol limiting individual tickets to two scans and group tickets to one.
