The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum and a global symbol of art, beauty and endurance, has withstood war, terror, and pandemic — but on Monday, it was brought to a halt by its own staff, who say the institution is crumbling under the weight of mass tourism. It was an almost unthinkable sight: the home to works by Leonardo da Vinci and millennia of civilization’s greatest treasures — paralyzed in a strike by the very people tasked with welcoming the world to its galleries. Thousands of stranded and confused visitors, tickets in hand, were corralled into unmoving lines beneath I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid. “It’s the Mona Lisa moan out here,” said Kevin Ward, 62, from Milwaukee. “Thousands of people waiting, no communication, no explanation.
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