Last week, the Louvre opened a show of Vermeer putting him in context of his peers and showing the ways in which Dutch Golden Age genre painters influenced and competed with each other. From the opening day, the crowds have surprised and overwhelmed the Louvre to the point that demand shut down online ticketing.

Think about that. The world’s most-visited museum couldn’t handle the traffic and visitor interest. Here’s L’Express explaining:

Since Wednesday, the Louvre hosts 12 paintings by the Dutch painter Vermeer. The management, surpassed by “a surge of public”, had to suspend its site of reservation. “Due to a technical problem, the service is temporarily suspended. We apologize for the inconvenience.” For several days, the online ticketing of the Louvre museum has been suspended . It is therefore impossible for visitors to book a ticket for the exhibitions offered on the site.

Louvre: Record attendance for Vermeer exhibition, suspended online ticketing  (L’Express)