Chinese forgers suspected in Louvre Museum ticket scam

French police are investigating a fake ticket scam - possibly involving both Chinese forgers and Chinese patrons - at the Louvre, Paris’s biggest cultural attraction and the world’s most visited museum.

Museum staff last month began noticing that several dozen Chinese tourists with tour groups held counterfeit tickets “of a strange consistency, [with] poor paper quality and ink that hadn’t set properly”, the daily Le Parisien reported.

Later in August better-quality forged items began appearing with serial numbers – exact copies of the museum’s entry tickets.

Also last month Belgian customs officials reportedly seized 4,000 counterfeit Louvre tickets hidden in a parcel from China.

French police are investigating the counterfeit tickets to establish whether a network of Chinese forgers has been conning tour groups with supposedly pre-booked tickets.

A combined ticket for the Louvre’s permanent collections and temporary exhibitions costs £16 (HK$134).