The Louvre in Paris, the world's most visited museum, closed to visitors on Sunday after staff refused to work due to coronavirus fears, unions and management said.
Around 300 staff met in the morning and voted "almost unanimously" not to open, Christian Galani of the CGT labour union told AFP, leaving many would-be visitors disappointed.
The Louvre, near the banks of the Seine river in central Paris, received 9.6 million visitors last year, most of them foreigners including Americans, Chinese and Europeans.
Louvre management later confirmed the museum was closed for the entire day, and said it would refund ticket-holders.
"We apologise for any inconvenience and will keep you informed as the situation develops," the museum said on its website.
On Saturday, the government announced several measures to try and curb the outbreak in France, including cancelling all gatherings of more than 5,000 people in confined spaces.
"The Louvre is a confined space which welcomes more than 5,000 people a day," said Galani, adding: "there is real concern on the part of staff."
Workers met in the morning to discuss these fears, and Galani said management representatives were unable to convince staff to go to work.
They are demanding stepped up protective measures, including the provision of hand sanitising gel and window barriers to separate cashiers from members of the public.
In January, workers also forced a one-day closure in a strike over the government's pension reform plans.
Earlier this week, the museum ended a special Leonardo da Vinci exhibition with an all-time visitors' record of nearly 1.1 million people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Kendall Jenner Visits The Louvre Museum Barefoot At "Midnight" To Soak In Its Beauty Because She Can Visitors Evacuated, Louvre Museum In Paris Shuts For Security Reasons After Threat McDonald's BTS-Meal Frenzy Causes Covid Scare In Indonesia After Retest, Haryana NEET Centre With Most Top Scorers Gave This Result... The 'Fake' CrowdStrike Worker Who Took Credit For Biggest-Ever IT Outage What Recovery Of Austrian Gun 'Steyr AUG' From J&K Terrorists Means Newborn Saved From Dead Mother's Womb After Israel Strikes Gaza Hospital Florida Cops Urge Locals To Stop Taking Selfies With "Depressed" Bear 5 People From Jharkhand's Jamtara Convicted For Money Laundering Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.