An Ugly Year for the Louvre: Where Does the World's Biggest Museum Go From Here?
Just over a year ago, Laurence des Cars, the intellectually brilliant yet famously prickly former head of the Louvre, penned an alarming note to France's culture minister. She lamented the advanced state of disrepair at the iconic museum, citing overcrowding, substandard facilities, outdated technologies, water leaks through ceilings, and violent temperature swings damaging artworks. The Louvre, she warned, had reached a "worrying level of obsolescence."
Her proposed solution? Barely a week later, des Cars stood beside President Emmanuel Macron in front of the Mona Lisa to unveil Louvre: New Renaissance, a radical, ambitious €1bn renovation plan. The future seemed assured, but the year ahead had other plans. Rolling staff strikes, a decade-long ticket scam, ageing infrastructure issues, and a daring daylight heist of €88m in crown jewels intervened, casting a shadow over the museum's grand ambitions.
A Museum in Crisis: From Heists to Leaks
No one doubts that the Louvre needs work. Spread across a sprawling 360,000 sq metre site, it is a city within a city, originally a 12th-century fortress that expanded into a gilded royal palace and became a museum in 1793. Its multilayered architecture contains more than 400 rooms and about 9 miles of corridors, with over 600,000 items in its collection—35,000 on permanent display. Designed to handle 4 million visitors annually, it drew 9 million last year, thanks to star attractions like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace.
However, the museum's decaying infrastructure has led to multiple crises. This month alone, two water pipes burst, including in the Denon wing housing the Mona Lisa. In November, more than 300 documents in the Library of Egyptian Antiquities were soaked by another flood. The Campana gallery closed due to structural weaknesses, and offices were moved over floor collapse risks. Morale among the Louvre's 2,300 employees is at an all-time low, with strikes forcing closures more than a dozen times since last summer.
Most spectacularly, in October, a gang of four broke into the Apollo gallery, stealing €88m of diamond-studded Napoleonic jewellery in a seven-minute raid using a stolen truck with an extendable ladder. Four men have been arrested, but the jewels remain missing. This heist, along with a ticket fraud scheme costing over €10m, has compounded the museum's reputational woes.
The Controversial €1bn Renovation Plan
Des Cars' renovation plan, enthusiastically backed by Macron, includes giving the Mona Lisa a room of its own with independent access, excavating new exhibition spaces beneath the Cour Carrée courtyard, and creating a "new grand entrance" at the Colonnade de Perrault. Critics call it pharaonic and unnecessary, with costs estimated at over €1.1bn drawing heavy criticism from the state auditor and staff who argue the money could be better spent on urgent repairs.
Didier Rykner, editorial director of La Tribune de l'Art, stated, "It's unnecessary, and it's harmful. But des Cars convinced Macron. He sees it as the kind of grand legacy project that French presidents love to leave behind them." The Louvre's last major refurb in the 1980s, commissioned by François Mitterrand, included the striking glass pyramid entrance. Macron, who chose the Louvre for his 2017 victory speech, views this as his signature cultural legacy, but its fate is now uncertain.
Leadership Changes and Future Challenges
Des Cars resigned in the wake of these crises, accepting partial blame for security failings but feeling she "may be paying the price" for her earlier warnings. Her successor, Christophe Leribault, 62, previously ran the Musée d'Orsay and is admired for turning around the Petit Palais. His task is politically loaded: to strengthen safety, restore trust, and carry forward necessary transformations while managing staff unrest and infrastructure repairs.
Rykner emphasizes, "He needs to get essential repairs done, calm down the staff unions, hire more people. That's not easy. He needs some new heads of department. And he has to develop a coherent acquisitions policy. It's a huge job." The New Renaissance project faces further hurdles: financing is not secure, with €200m-€300m expected from Abu Dhabi licensing fees and the rest from reluctant international donors. The timetable is strained, with architectural selections suspended in February.
Alternative Solutions and Vanity Project Accusations
Critics argue that the Louvre has the funds for essential repairs and a more modest modernisation through Abu Dhabi funds, cash reserves, ticket revenues, and state subsidies. Rykner suggests alternatives: "Three smaller additional entrances would be perfectly feasible—and there are other options for displaying the Mona Lisa." The renovated Grand Palais, costing over €500m for the Olympics, could provide exhibition space.
Staff unions denounce the project as "phantasmagorical," "out of touch," and "far removed from the reality and needs of the Louvre." The state auditor calls it a "significant financial risk," urging focus on urgent repairs. As Macron prepares to leave office next spring, many see New Renaissance as a vanity project that Leribault should resist until political winds shift, prioritizing the museum's immediate survival over grandiose legacy dreams.
