9 arrested over Louvre ticket fraud scheme involving Chinese tourists

The Paris prosecutors' office on Thursday said that nine people were being detained as part of an investigation into a suspected decade-long, €10 million (US$11.8 million) ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum.

The arrests took place on Tuesday as part of a judicial investigation opened after the Louvre filed a complaint in December 2024, the prosecutors’ office said.

The loss for the museum over the past decade is estimated to exceed €10 million, it said.

Those detained include two Louvre employees, several tour guides and one person suspected of being the mastermind, according to the prosecutors’ office.

The museum alerted investigators about the frequent presence of two Chinese tour guides suspected of bringing groups of Chinese tourists into the museum by fraudulently reusing the same tickets multiple times for different visitors.

Other guides were later suspected of similar practices.