What do Malaga's museums spend on security to prevent thefts like the one at the Louvre?

The latest robbery of the century at the Louvre has sent shockwaves around the world's museums. Four thieves and a telescopic work ladder on a truck were enough to demonstrate that security at France's great cultural centre - and one of the most prestigious in the world - is in dire need of improvement, prompting other institutions to review their security protocols. Security is a particularly pressing issue in a city of museums such as Malaga. Just look at the numbers, as the protection of art collections is one of the biggest expenses on the annual bill for upkeep of the city's exhibition spaces.

In all the cases analysed by SUR, these services are provided externally by specialised security companies, to which Malaga's art galleries dedicate an ever-increasing total amount from their budgets, exceeding a spend of four million euros in 2025.

Until now, the workforce of more than 70 officers and security guards watching over the works of art hanging in Malaga's main museums were mostly on their guard for the type of attacks on paintings that have proliferated in recent years, done as a form of protest for various causes, in addition to supervising visitor traffic and general security without impacting the collections on display. However, following the spectacular theft of the royal jewels at the Louvre last Sunday, the security teams have put this type of threat back at the top of their to-do list, having become acutely aware of the shortcomings in security at one of the world's leading cultural centres.

In Malaga, there have been no recorded cases of art theft in the last two decades, although the risk of such an occurrence is one of the obvious fears of museum directors, curators and owners of paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and engravings. One need only recall the recent case in Granada: the disappearance of a small drawing by Pablo Picasso during the moving of an exhibition. The piece remains unaccounted for and police are investigating to determine its whereabouts or to verify that it was indeed stolen.

While cutbacks are widespread across sectors, security in Malaga does not seem to be affected by budget cuts, quite the contrary, in fact. Thus, the overall budget of 4,063,774 euros to finance the security teams of the six major museums in the Costa del Sol capital represents a significant increase of 26% in this respect, compared to the 3.2 million euros allocated for this same purpose in 2024.

If we break down these overall figures, the Picasso Museum in Malaga (MPM) is the museum that dedicates most financial and human resources to security at its headquarters in the Buenavista Palace. This is logical, given that it is the exhibition centre with the most sought-after works of art from Malaga's collections and the one with the highest visitor numbers in all Andalucía (792,353 people last year). Thus, this particular art gallery on Calle San Agustín is the most aware of the need for this service, having increased its budget - it now costs over two euros per visitor to remain vigilant - and raising its investment in security to 1.6 million euros this year.

Although the MPM declines to comment on its security and what happened at the Louvre, the leading museum in Malaga makes it clear on its transparency portal that its commitment to security has improved considerably this year by increasing its budget for this work and raising the total by 61% in 2025, having allocated one million euros to security in the previous year. A significant figure for a museum whose assets amount to a very substantial insurance valuation of 93 million euros.

Next up, just a few paces behind, are three museums with similar figures for security at their facilities: the Russian Museum Collection (a budget of 631,616 euros), the Pompidou Centre (627,126 euros) and the Carmen Thyssen Museum with 605,000 euros allocated to security. Of these three, the largest increase in 2025 was logged by the third art gallery, up 46%, having also increased its investment in this area to match that of its competitors. With similar figures, but one level lower in terms of resource spend on security, are the Casa Natal Picasso (285,108 euros) and the Malaga Museum, with 281,869 euros, completing the list. Together, they have invested millions to prevent their collections from being attacked by art thieves.