The home of the 'Mona Lisa' has a new boss to steer the Louvre out of crisis after jewel heist

Описание: (25 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris - 25 February 2026
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Turnbull, the Associated Press:
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++STARTS ON SHOT 2++
"You'll remember the crown jewel's heist that rocked the Louver museum last year. Well, it's just cost the museum's president her job and Laurence Des Cars is being replaced by what you might call a seasoned insider. His name, Christophe Leribault."
2. Various exteriors of Louvre Museum, one of the entrances and exteriors
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Turnbull, the Associated Press:
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"He knows the place well since he was trained at the Ecole du Louvre. He's an expert of the 18th century, and he's run some of France's biggest museums, and most recently, Versailles. So he's had to manage huge crowds, tight budgets, and constant public scrutiny. His biggest challenge is obviously security. Fewer than 40% of rooms have cameras, and a full overhaul of the most visited museum in the world isn't expected until 2032."
4. Various exteriors of Louvre Museum
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Turnbull, the Associated Press:
++PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 6++
"The 88 million euro (almost $US 103 million) robbery exposed deeper problems, labor unrest, water leaks, aging infrastructure and a suspected long-running ticket fraud scheme. There's politics too. For Emmanuel Macron, the president, fixing the law is a flagship legacy project as he heads towards the end of his term."
6. Various exteriors of Louvre Museum, street scenes
STORYLINE:
After months of pressure, the Louvre has a new director.

Christophe Leribault was named to lead the landmark museum on Wednesday, half a day after the previous director, Laurence des Cars, resigned. The leadership change at the world’s most-visited museum comes after the October crown jewels heist and a string of failures that battered confidence in one of the country’s most prized institutions.

The rapid handover is meant to restore order at a museum hit by a punishing run of crises: the heist, labor unrest, water leaks, aging infrastructure and a suspected, decade-long $12 million ticket fraud scheme.

It also protects a politically loaded project for President Emmanuel Macron, who has made the Louvre overhaul a signature cultural legacy plan as he eyes the end of his term next year.

The government cast Leribault, a veteran museum director, as the steady hand for a battered institution, with responsibility for both the Louvre’s security overhaul and its modernization.

An 18th-century specialist trained at the École du Louvre (Louvre School, a higher educational institution, under the French ministry of Culture, providing museum related courses), Leribault has led France’s biggest museums, including the Petit Palais and the Musée d’Orsay.

He most recently ran Versailles, one of France’s biggest heritage sites, with heavy visitor traffic and an annual budget of about 170 million euros ($200 million).

His résumé makes him a crisis-era choice: a curator-administrator shaped by France’s museum system and used to public scrutiny, large crowds and the mechanics of state cultural power.

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