{"id":498923,"date":"2026-02-25T16:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/498923\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:43:09","slug":"macron-appoints-new-head-of-crisis-hit-louvre-after-jewellery-heist-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/498923\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron appoints new head of crisis-hit Louvre after jewellery heist | Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

France has appointed Christophe Leribault as the new head of the Louvre, bringing in the director of the Palace of Versailles to turn around the world\u2019s most visited museum after a humiliating jewellery heist<\/a> and staff strikes.<\/p>\n

Leribault, who was chosen by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will succeed Laurence des Cars, who resigned on Tuesday<\/a>. Des Cars had faced intense criticism since burglars made off<\/a> in October with jewels worth an estimated $102m, exposing glaring security gaps at the museum. The jewels are still missing.<\/p>\n

The culture ministry said in a statement: \u201cLeribault\u2019s priority will be to strengthen the safety and security of the building, the collections, and people, to restore a climate of trust, and to carry forward, together with all the teams, the necessary transformations for the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thieves made off with priceless Napoleonic jewels during a daylight heist in October at the Louvre, the world\u2019s most-visited museum. Photograph: Christophe Delattre\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Leribault, 62, is an art historian specialising in the 18th century who previously led the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay and the Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Orangerie, both in Paris<\/a>, before taking over at Versailles in 2024. He will leave the Versailles job to take up the Louvre role.<\/p>\n

He was deputy director of the Louvre\u2019s department of graphic arts from 2006 to 2012, the ministry said.<\/p>\n

Strikes over pay and work conditions have repeatedly shut the Louvre since mid-December, while water leaks and an alleged ticket fraud scheme that prosecutors say siphoned more than \u20ac10m over a decade have also cast a shadow over one of Paris\u2019s top tourist attractions.<\/p>\n

A state auditors\u2019 report last year urged management at the Louvre, home to Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Mona Lisa, to redirect spending from acquisitions to overdue security and infrastructure upgrades.<\/p>\n

The report highlighted persistent delays in the deployment of security equipment, saying only 39% of rooms in the vast museum \u2013 which had more than 8.7 million visitors last year \u2013 had been fitted with CCTV cameras as of 2024.<\/p>\n

A more recent parliamentary inquiry called the Louvre a \u201cstate within a state\u201d. The inquiry\u2019s chair, Alexandre Portier, said the burglary had revealed \u201csystemic failures\u201d, \u201ca denial of risk\u201d and a management that was \u201ccurrently failing\u201d.<\/p>\n

As Des Cars, 59, resigned on Tuesday, Macron\u2019s office said the museum needed \u201ccalm and a strong new impetus to successfully carry out major projects involving security and modernisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Des Cars, who was appointed in 2021, acknowledged a \u201cterrible failure\u201d<\/a> days after the burglary, admitting that security camera coverage of the museum\u2019s outside walls was \u201chighly inadequate\u201d and adding: \u201cDespite our hard work, we failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuters contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France has appointed Christophe Leribault as the new head of the Louvre, bringing in the director of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-498923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}