PARIS — Laurence des Cars, the first female president of the Louvre Museum, resigned Tuesday, less than five months after an audacious theft raised thorny questions about security at one of the world’s most famous museums.

Des Cars submitted her resignation to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who had appointed her in 2021 and championed her plans for an ambitious refurbishment of the museum, known as “Louvre — New Renaissance.”

The president’s office said in a statement that Macron had accepted des Cars’ resignation “as an act of responsibility at a time when the world’s largest museum needs both stability and a strong new impetus to successfully complete major security and modernization projects.”

Des Cars’ resignation came a day before she was scheduled to testify before the French parliament about security issues in the aftermath of the theft of a collection of jewels, which were valued at more than $100 million.

Her departure leaves the “New Renaissance” project in flux. Macron views the project as one of his signature cultural legacies, but it has aroused widespread criticism because of its expense and because of the proposed changes to the layout of the Louvre.

The heist was only one of a series of misfortunes that befell the Louvre under des Cars’ watch, which included water damage to antique books, the forced closing of a gallery because of structural weaknesses, cascades of strikes by museum workers and a ticket fraud scheme that cost the museum nearly $12 million. Each setback chipped away at des Cars’ reputation and her political backing.

Des Cars, 59, offered to resign in the immediate aftermath of the theft, but her offer was rejected by France’s culture minister, Rachida Dati, who is effectively her boss. But Dati, who is now running for mayor of Paris, tried to appoint a senior civil servant, Philippe Jost, to work alongside des Cars to overhaul the management of the Louvre. The appointment never happened, but the rumors of it were seen as a humiliating verdict on her leadership.

Des Cars initially said that a key security camera was facing the wrong way during the heist, an explanation that was later contradicted by investigators who found that the burglars were in fact caught on camera.

Acknowledges Reputable Damage

In an interview with The New York Times a month after the theft, des Cars acknowledged the reputational damage that the burglary had done. “It is a wound that I will certainly carry all my life,” she said.

But des Cars defended her record at the Louvre, pointing out that she had long called attention to weaknesses in the museum’s security. She said she had worked to marshal government support to renovate the glorious but dangerously dilapidated palace, parts of which date back to 1190.

Just weeks after the heist, the discovery of structural weakness in beams forced the closure of a marquee gallery that housed Greek ceramics.

“When you take charge of this museum, you know very well that it is a political, diplomatic and cultural symbol and that it is constantly subject to very intense controversies,” said des Cars, a specialist in 19th-century art who had led the Musée d’Orsay before taking over the Louvre.

“I knew that from the start,” she said. “I didn’t know that I would, of course, have the current crisis to manage, but one learns a lot.”

A spokesperson for the Louvre said that the museum and des Cars declined to comment.

Des Cars said in an interview published by a French paper, Le Figaro, shortly after her resignation was announced that she accepted a share of the blame for the security failures that led to the heist. But, she added, “the guilty parties, those who ordered the attack, are still at large.”

Des Cars insisted that her proposed changes would eventually transform the Louvre, though she acknowledged they had drawn stiff resistance.

“Perhaps I am paying the price for that today,” she said. “I have no regrets.”

After Theft, des Cars Retained Support

Even after the heist, des Cars retained the support of many on the Louvre’s staff. But she never fully recovered from the storm of criticism that followed the sensational theft, a crime carried out in broad daylight by thieves who broke into the museum after climbing up a truck-mounted electric ladder. The cinematic details captured headlines and inspired comedy routines around the world.

The Cour des Comptes, France’s top auditing institution, published a damning audit of the Louvre, saying that there was no security master plan and that its security systems were aging. It faulted the museum’s leaders for focusing on buying artwork and designing showrooms at the cost of basic upkeep.

“The theft of the crown jewels is, without a doubt, a deafening alarm signal,” said the auditors’ president, Pierre Moscovici.

The auditors were similarly scathing about the “New Renaissance” project, which they said was too costly at 1.1 billion euros, or $1.3 billion. Under the plans, the Louvre would move the Mona Lisa, its most popular painting, to its own room, with an entrance separate from I.M. Pei’s pyramid at the Louvre’s current entrance. The auditors said that money should be spent on beefing up security.

For Macron, who announced the “New Renaissance” project while standing in front of the Mona Lisa, the turmoil could jeopardize what he had hoped would be a cultural legacy on par with those left by previous French presidents. Georges Pompidou commissioned the cultural hub that later took his name, the Pompidou Center, while François Mitterrand initiated the construction of the Bastille Opera and the Louvre’s pyramid entrance.

Because the “New Renaissance” plan is so closely identified with Macron, it has inevitably been caught up in French politics. Its checkered reputation is reflecting his waning popularity as he enters the final year of his second presidential term.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Mark Landler/Dmitry Kostyukov
c. 2026 The New York Times Company