Fraud is ‘inevitable,’ Louvre asserts

Amid ticket scheme inquiry, administrator of museum notes its size is a vulnerability.

- THOMAS ADAMSON

AUTHORITIES examine the scene of a heist at the Louvre in Paris in October.

(KIRAN RIDLEY Getty Images)

For the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, it is “statistically inevitable” that fraud would come up at some point, the museum's No. 2 said in the wake of a decade-long, $11.8-million suspected ticket-fraud scheme revealed last week.

Kim Pham, the Louvre’s general administrator, told the Associated Press that the museum's unique scale makes it particularly vulnerable. However, pressed to name other institutions with similar problems, he declined to single out peers.

“Which museum in the world, with this level of attendance, would not at certain moments have some issues of fraud,” wondered Pham, who oversees day-to-day operations, including administration and internal management.

And that’s no easy task, with nearly 926,000 square feet of space presenting 35,000 works of art to 9 million visitors a year.

A web of problems

Last week, Paris prosecutors said that nine people were being detained in connection to the ticket scheme. The nine have been formally charged and brought before investigating judges.

Among the suspects are two Chinese tour guides accused of bringing groups of tourists into the museum by fraudulently reusing the same tickets multiple times for different visitors, allegedly with the help of Louvre employees.