New Leader Picked for Crisis-Stricken Louvre Museum
Christophe Leribault, who heads the Palace of Versailles, succeeds Laurence des Cars within one day of her resignation.
A new director has been appointed at the Louvre Museum within one day of Laurence des Cars' resignation on February 24. French President Emmanuel Macron named art historian and seasoned museum leader Christophe Leribault, who has helmed the Palace of Versailles since 2024, to steer the crisis-stricken Paris museum through major transitions in the wake of the monumental jewel heist that occurred last October.
Following the intense scrutiny and criticism lobbied against des Cars over the infrastructural and surveillance failures that enabled the robbery, Leribault is now expected to carry out “Nouvelle Renaissance,” the massive, multi-year overhaul plan to modernize and fortify the Louvre.
In a press conference earlier today, February 25, French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said that Leribault will be “responsible for leading important and major projects for the future of the institution, including securing and modernizing the Louvre and continuing the ‘Louvre New Renaissance’ project.”
This is not the first time Leribault, 62, succeeds des Cars as museum leader. He replaced her as president of the Musée d'Orsay in 2021 upon her appointment as the Louvre's director. Before that, he led the Petit Palais art museum and the Musée Delacroix, both in Paris.
Leribault returns to the Louvre 20 years after serving as the deputy director at the museum's Department of Graphic Arts.
