Laurence des Cars, former director of the Louvre (image courtesy of the Nexus Institute)
After five years on the job, Laurence des Cars has resigned as director of the Louvre.
Des Cars tendered her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week. She had previously offered her resignation to the president in the immediate aftermath of the October 2025 crown jewels heist, but Macron refused to accept it.
Prior to her taking the helm of the world’s most-visited museum, des Cars previously served as director of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, both in Paris. She was appointed to the position in 2021, making her the first female director of the Louvre. Despite some successes, such as the Jacques-Louis David retrospective and the increased acquisition of modern and contemporary artworks, some predict that des Cars’s time as director will likely be characterized by institutional failures that expose the museum’s infrastructural and security issues.
As part of President Macron‘s cultural agenda, des Cars signed off on a major renovation project called the Nouvelle Renaissance. Notably, the plan included a new museum entrance by the River Seine and a 33,000-square-foot wing dedicated to the Mona Lisa, which would ease visitor traffic in the other galleries. The need for infrastructural improvements was driven home by several instances over the past year in which rainwater leaked into museum galleries, libraries, and archives. Museum staff have gone on strike several times during des Cars’s directorship, partially to call attention to the need for improvements.
And of course, one of the top art-world moments of 2025 was the October heist that saw the theft of some of France’s crown jewels, valued at €88 million. The investigation is ongoing, but several arrests have been made. The stolen jewels have not been recovered, but the crown of Empress Eugénie will soon be restored after being damaged in the incident.
The most recent scandal to rock the Louvre occurred only this month. Paris police have arrested nine people for allegedly conspiring to defraud the museum through several methods. These conspirators, mainly tour guides, were found to have reused tickets, split tour groups to avoid extra fees, and bribed museum employees. Using these methods for close to ten years, authorities allege that the suspects cost the Louvre €10 million. When questioned, some officials, like the museum’s administrator general, Kim Pham, said that some fraud is inevitable for a museum as large as the Louvre. However, the museum administration has stated it will revise its ticket validation policies to prevent this fraud from happening again.
In a statement, des Cars wrote that being director of the Louvre was “the honor of my professional life.” President Macron has since announced his candidate to replace des Cars, the director of the Palace of Versailles, Christophe Leribault.