Louvre Museum Director Resigns In The Wake Of October's Brazen French Crown Jewels Heist

PARIS — The Louvre Museum’s head resigned Tuesday aft months of unit pursuing nan October theft of nan French crown jewels, arsenic nan world’s astir visited depository faced widening scrutiny complete information failures, labour unrest and a suspected summons fraud scheme.

Laurence des Cars discontinue aft a punishing twelvemonth for nan erstwhile royal palace — nan high-profile jewels heist from nan Apollo Gallery, a mid-February burst tube adjacent nan “Mona Lisa,” h2o leaks damaging priceless books, unit walkouts and a wildcat onslaught complete overcrowding and understaffing.

The landmark has faced a communicative of an institution spiraling retired of control.

And that unit deepened successful caller weeks erstwhile French authorities revealed a suspected decadelong summons fraud cognition linked to nan depository that investigators opportunity whitethorn person costs nan Louvre $11.8 million.

President Emmanuel Macron accepted Des Cars’ resignation arsenic “an enactment of responsibility” astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile nan Louvre needs “calm” and caller momentum for information upgrades, modernization and different awesome projects, according to a connection from his office.

Macron wants to springiness Des Cars a caller ngo during France’s presidency of nan Group of 7 starring industrialized nations, focused connected practice among awesome museums, nan connection said.

For galore successful France’s taste world, nan resignation answers months of head-scratching complete why nary apical charismatic had fallen aft nan heist: a daylight robbery that galore successful nan state saw arsenic nan astir humiliating breach of French practice information successful surviving memory.

It besides came arsenic lawmakers and taste officials widened scrutiny of nan museum’s activity and information practices successful nan months since nan breach.

Brazen theft

Thieves took little than 8 minutes successful October to bargain crown jewels weighted astatine $102 cardinal from nan Louvre, successful a play cognition that stunned visitors, exposed glaring vulnerabilities and near 1 of France’s astir symbolically charged collections successful criminal hands.

Several suspects were later arrested, but nan stolen pieces stay missing.

Des Cars, 1 of nan astir salient depository board successful Europe, had offered to resign connected nan time of nan robbery, but nan connection was initially refused by nan civilization minister.

In remarks aft nan theft, she described nan infinitesimal arsenic a “tragic, brutal, convulsive reality” for nan Louvre and said that, arsenic nan personification successful charge, it had felt correct to connection her resignation.

Lightning rod

In an question and reply published connected Tuesday by regular newspaper Le Figaro, Des Cars said she had tried to steer nan Louvre done nan fallout from nan heist, but had concluded that she could nary longer transportation retired nan museum’s translator successful nan existent organization climate.

Staying on, she said, would person meant managing nan position quo erstwhile nan depository still needs heavy reform.

“I was location to return nan lightning” arsenic depository director, she said.

Des Cars besides said that nan October break-in exposed problems that she had been informing astir since taking office, including aging infrastructure, obsolete method systems and terrible congestion.

She had led nan Louvre since 2021, taking complete 1 of nan depository world’s astir prestigious jobs arsenic nan institution emerged from nan coronavirus pandemic and wide tourism returned.

Multifaceted crisis

In June, a wildcat onslaught by front-of-house unit and information workers forced nan Louvre to halt operations, stranding thousands of visitors extracurricular nan solid pyramid and underscoring nan extent of anger among labor complete overcrowding, understaffing and what unions called untenable moving conditions.

Workers said that nan unit of regular visitant flows — peculiarly astir nan “Mona Lisa” — had go unmanageable and that promised reforms were arriving excessively slowly. There were increasing complaints that nan infrastructure and staffing of nan crumbling medieval building haven’t kept gait pinch nan crowds pouring done its galleries.

The resignation came astatine an particularly punishing moment, little than 2 weeks aft French authorities revealed nan abstracted summons fraud scheme.

That lawsuit widened scrutiny beyond nan jewels robbery and toward nan museum’s day-to-day controls.

Fraud scheme

Prosecutors opportunity circuit guides are suspected of — up to 20 times a time — reusing nan aforesaid tickets to bring successful different visitant groups, astatine times allegedly pinch nan thief of Louvre employees, successful a strategy investigators judge operated for a decade.

In a uncommon question and reply conscionable days agone pinch nan Associated Press aft nan fraud lawsuit was made public, nan Louvre’s No. 2, wide administrator Kim Pham, said that fraud astatine an institution nan size of nan Louvre was “statistically inevitable.”

He based on that nan museum’s sheer standard — millions of visitors, aggregate checkpoints and a sprawling historical analyzable — makes it uniquely exposed.

But he besides acknowledged shortcomings, and said that nan depository had tightened validation checks and accrued controls.

New Renaissance

The succession of crises has put caller governmental weight connected a task Macron has heavy championed: nan Louvre’s sweeping overhaul plan, branded nan “Louvre New Renaissance.”

Unveiled by Macron successful January 2025, nan renovation, which could return up to a decade, intends to modernize a depository wide seen arsenic overstretched and physically worn down by wide tourism.

The scheme includes a caller entranceway adjacent nan Seine River to easiness unit connected I.M. Pei’s pyramid, caller underground spaces and a dedicated room for nan “Mona Lisa” pinch timed entree — each intended to amended crowd travel and trim nan regular crush that has go a awesome of nan Louvre’s occurrence and its dysfunction.

The task is expected to costs astir $826 cardinal to $944 million, pinch backing from summons revenue, authorities support, donations and Louvre Abu Dhabi-related income.

The standard and costs of that scheme now loom complete nan hunt for Des Cars’ successor.

Macron has framed nan overhaul arsenic a nationalist priority, comparing its ambition to different landmark French restoration efforts and casting it arsenic portion of a broader defense of French taste prestige.

Adamson and Leicester constitute for nan Associated Press.