We failed to protect jewels from ‘brutal’ criminals, Louvre director says after heist
Who is Laurence des Cars and can she keep her job?published at 15:28 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor
Image source, Getty ImagesLaurence des Cars with Rachida Dati, the culture minister, earlier this year
The first female director the Louvre since it came into being in 1793, she has kept her silence until now on the extraordinary events at her museum that have shaken France.
Laurence des Cars’ position is so important, she was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 with an unimpeachable record as former director of two of France’s most important museums: the Musée d’Orsay, also on the banks of the River Seine, and the Musée de l’Orangerie.
She came to the Louvre post promising to make an overcrowded museum more engaging and dynamic to the 8.7 million visitors it welcomes every year.
After Sunday, her position has become very different and her name will from now on be linked to the Louvre heist and the security that somehow failed to protect some of France’s most valuable heirlooms.
Standing alongside the culture minister, Rachida Dati, on Sunday evening, she looked pale, say commentators.
She handed in her resignation to the Élysée Palace only for it to be rejected. “It would be counter-productive to cut off a head today, if it’s not the right one,” a Palace official said, according to Le Figaro newspaper.
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