Louvre Museum director resigns following months of turmoil and jewels heist

The Louvre Museum’s director resigned on Tuesday after months of pressure following the October theft of the French crown jewels, as the world’s most visited museum faced widening scrutiny over security failures, labour unrest and a suspected ticket fraud scheme. Laurence des Cars quit after a punishing year for the former royal palace - the high-profile jewels heist from the Apollo Gallery, a mid-February burst pipe near the Mona Lisa, water leaks damaging priceless books, staff walkouts and a wildcat strike over overcrowding and understaffing. The landmark has faced a narrative of an institution spiralling out of control. And that pressure deepened in recent weeks when French authorities revealed a suspected decade-long ticket fraud operation linked to the museum that investigators say may have cost the Louvre €10 million (US$11.8 million). President Emmanuel Macron accepted des Cars’ resignation as “an act of responsibility” at a moment when the Louvre needs “calm” and new momentum for security upgrades, modernisation and other major projects, according to a statement from his office. Macron wants to give des Cars a new mission during France’s presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialised nations, focused on cooperation among major museums, the statement said. Art historian Christophe Leribault, who currently heads the Palace of Versailles near Paris, will take over as director of the Louvre Museum, French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon announced on Wednesday. For many in France’s cultural world, the resignation answers months of head-scratching over why no top official had fallen after the heist: a daylight robbery that many in the country saw as the most humiliating breach of French heritage security in living memory. It also came as lawmakers and cultural officials widened scrutiny of the museum’s leadership and security practices in the months since the breach. Thieves took less than eight minutes in October to steal crown jewels valued at €88 million (US$102 million) from the Louvre, in a weekend operation that stunned visitors, exposed glaring vulnerabilities and left one of France’s most symbolically charged collections in criminal hands. Several suspects were later arrested, but the stolen pieces remain missing. Des Cars, one of the most prominent museum directors in Europe, had offered to resign on the day of the robbery, but it was initially refused by the culture minister. In remarks after the theft, she described the moment as a “tragic, brutal, violent reality” for the Louvre and said that, as the person in charge, it had felt right to offer her resignation. In an interview published on Tuesday by daily newspaper Le Figaro, des Cars said that she had tried to steer the Louvre through the fallout from the heist, but had concluded that she could no longer carry out the museum’s transformation in the current institutional climate. Staying on, she said, would have meant managing the status quo when the museum still needs deep reform. “I was there to take the lightning” as museum director, she said. Des Cars also said that the October break-in exposed problems that she had been warning about since taking office, including ageing infrastructure, obsolete technical systems and severe congestion. She had led the Louvre since 2021, taking over one of the museum world’s most prestigious jobs as the institution emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and mass tourism returned. In June, a wildcat strike by front-of-house staff and security workers forced the Louvre to halt operations, stranding thousands of visitors outside the glass pyramid and underscoring the depth of anger among employees over overcrowding, understaffing and what unions called untenable working conditions. The resignation came at an especially punishing moment, less than two weeks after French authorities revealed the separate ticket-fraud scheme. That case widened scrutiny beyond the jewels robbery and towards the museum’s day-to-day controls. Prosecutors say tour guides are suspected of - up to 20 times a day - reusing the same tickets to bring in different visitor groups, at times allegedly with the help of Louvre employees, in a system investigators believe operated for a decade. The succession of crises has put new political weight on a project Macron has heavily championed: the Louvre’s sweeping overhaul plan, branded the “Louvre New Renaissance”. Unveiled by Macron in January 2025, the renovation, which could take up to a decades, aims to modernise a museum widely seen as overstretched and physically worn down by mass tourism. The plan includes a new entrance near the Seine River to ease pressure on I.M. Pei’s pyramid, new underground spaces and a dedicated room for the Mona Lisa with timed access - all intended to improve crowd flow and reduce the daily crush that has become a symbol of the Louvre’s success and its dysfunction. The project is expected to cost roughly €700 million-€800 million (US$826 million-US$944 million), with funding from ticket revenue, state support, donations and Louvre Abu Dhabi-related income.

Louvre Museum director resigns following months of turmoil and jewels heist

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Christophe Leribault will take over as director of the famed French museum following the departure of Laurence des Cars

Christophe Leribault will take over as director of the famed French museum following the departure of Laurence des Cars