扒手肆虐，羅浮宮館員閉館抗議

Louvre Museum Closes as Staff Protests Epidemic (極為流行的) of Pickpocketing

扒手肆虐，羅浮宮館員閉館抗議

The world’s most visited art museum is dealing with an influx (匯流、湧進) of unwelcome visitors.

A staff walkout over the rise of pickpockets (扒手) forced the Louvre in Paris to shut its doors Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

Workers say that thieves have been showing up at the museum in gangs of up to 30 — primarily made up of young Eastern Europeans — and are responsible for incidents (事件、插曲) of “spitting, insults, threats” and striking employees and visitors.

Staffers “come to work afraid because they find themselves confronted with organized groups of pickpockets who are increasingly aggressive (有侵略性的) and which include children, who get into the museum free and even when taken in for questioning by police, come back a few days later,” Christelle Guyader, a representative (代表) for the network of trade unions Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD), told the AFP.

The Louvre did request more police protection late last year and is planning to immediately increase law enforcement (實施) presence around the premises (館址), as well as limit access to people already outed (揭露) as pickpockets, a spokesperson for the museum told the AFP.

Last year, nearly 9.7 million people visited the landmark, best-known as the home of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

在此補充一些和文章有關的訊息：

羅浮宮始建於12世紀末，由法王腓力二世（「奧古斯都」）下令修建，最初是用作防禦的城堡，邊長約90米，四周有城壕， 其面積大致相當於今羅浮宮最東端院落的四分之一。

當時的羅浮宮堡並不是法國國王的居所，而是被用來存放王室財寶和武器。 法國國王對藝術品的收集始於弗朗索瓦一世時期，弗朗索瓦一世曾從義大利購買了包括油畫蒙娜麗莎在內的大量藝術品。 

拿破崙在征服歐洲各國的同時，將被征服國家的藝術品大量運往法國，送至羅浮宮（此時已改名為「拿破崙博物館」）展出，還增加了古羅馬和古埃及藝術品展廳。 但隨著1815年拿破崙的第二次退位和終生放逐，羅浮宮藏品中約有5000多件藝術品被歸還給原來所屬國。 

此後的100多年裡，羅浮宮的收藏範圍不斷擴大，加入了東方（遠東）、亞述、古埃及等時代的藏品。隨著藏品數量的增多，展覽空間越來越小。 

1981年，法國政府決定將羅浮宮建築群的全部建築劃撥博物館，並對羅浮宮實施了大規模的整修。由華裔美籍設計師貝聿銘(1983年普利茲克獎得主， 被譽為「現代主義建築的最後大師」)（the last master of high modernist architecture）設計的位於羅浮宮中央廣場上的透明金字塔建築。