Louvre chief steps down months after €88m crown jewels heist exposed security failures

The resignation of Louvre director Laurence des Cars closes a turbulent chapter for the world’s most visited museum, one that began with a theft so audacious it forced France to confront how poorly some of its most valuable cultural treasures were being protected.

President Emmanuel Macron accepted her decision on Tuesday, calling it “an act of responsibility at a time when the world’s largest museum needs both stability and a strong new impetus,” according to the Elysée Palace. Des Cars had offered to step down in the immediate aftermath of the robbery, but that proposal was initially rejected by Culture Minister Rachida Dati.

The turning point was the heist itself: the theft of €88m ($100m) in crown jewels from the Apollo Gallery, a crime that quickly became known as the “heist of the century”. Beyond the scale of the loss, it exposed what the director herself described as “absolutely obsolete, even absent, technical infrastructure” for monitoring some of the country’s most historically significant objects — a “terrible observation” for an institution that symbolises both French heritage and global museum leadership.

The robbery did not occur in isolation. It followed months of internal strain, including strike action by staff who complained of overwhelming visitor numbers, chronic understaffing and deteriorating working conditions. In 2024 the Louvre received 8.7 million visitors, with Americans accounting for 13 percent of the total — second only to French nationals — a reminder that the museum’s operational pressures are inseparable from its role as a cornerstone of France’s tourism economy.

Des Cars’ tenure had begun with historic significance. Appointed in September 2021, she became the first woman to lead the Louvre in its 230-year history and was widely regarded as a scholar with a strong curatorial record. Macron’s statement made clear that her departure is not a full retreat from public life: she has been assigned a new role linked to France’s G7 presidency, focused on cooperation among major museums.

Her exit nonetheless reflects the weight of the security failure. In French public institutions, high-profile resignations often serve as a political and administrative response to crisis, even when investigations and structural reforms are still under way. The president’s language — pairing “stability” with the need for “a strong new impetus” — suggests the government sees the museum not simply as recovering from a crime, but as requiring a broader reset.

The next director will inherit more than the task of restoring confidence in the Louvre’s ability to safeguard its collections. They will also face the unresolved tensions that predated the theft: record visitor numbers, staff capacity, infrastructure modernisation and the balance between access and preservation in a museum that functions simultaneously as a national monument and a global cultural hub.