Louvre boss promises ‘culture of security’ after heist
New director Christophe Leribault is on a fundraising push while seeking to turn the page after the theft of historic crown jewels from the Paris museum
The Louvre’s new director says he is instilling a “culture of security” at the world’s most visited museum, a year after thieves exploited glaring weaknesses to steal 19th-century crown jewels.
“Museums once assumed that the most famous works of our heritage were essentially unsellable and untouchable,” said Christophe Leribault, a well-regarded museum administrator appointed by the government in February to calm the crisis sparked by the daylight heist.
“Now, we know we must be extremely vigilant,” he told the FT. “Urgent renovations have begun and continue. Security must be integrated from the outset into all our choices.”
Previously at the helm of the Château de Versailles and Musée d’Orsay, 62-year-old Leribault has been welcomed at the Louvre by often restive labour unions, which saw his predecessor, Laurence des Cars, as out of touch and authoritarian. Leribault, a specialist in 18th-century French painting, has already quelled strikes.
But now he has the difficult task of quickly upgrading the Louvre’s chronically underfunded security infrastructure while also going ahead with its most ambitious renovation in 40 years.
Last October, thieves posing as workmen in high-visibility vests parked a truck-mounted furniture lift on the Seine side of the Louvre and hoisted themselves into the gilded Galerie d’Apollon.
They made off with eight pieces of diamond- and emerald-studded royal jewellery, including the pearl crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Eugénie. Estimated to be worth €88mn, none have been recovered, although five people have been arrested and put under official investigation.
The heist was part of a spate of brazen museum thefts across Europe over the past two years, with criminals usually targeting objects that can easily be converted into cash. In the past two months, thieves have stolen two Renoirs from a museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer in southern France, a major Bronze Age gold hoard near Alicante in Spain and a diamond necklace in Vienna.
Europol warned in August that museum heists were employing increasingly “aggressive methods”, potentially indicating “the involvement of new criminal networks”.
“What is frightening is the new violence involved,” said Leribault. “In Vienna and Spain, serious organised criminals targeted museums, which is a challenge for our staff who are really geared towards welcoming visitors and monitoring galleries.”
Since the robbery, the Louvre has installed metal bars where the thieves entered, added cameras, repaired access gates and brought in extra private guards. It has also begun a long-delayed security overhaul costing more than €80mn, although major elements have yet to be implemented, including perimeter surveillance and a new central command post.
The remaining crown jewels have been removed from the Galerie d’Apollon to a secure location before they can be displayed elsewhere. “We did not want a morbid type of tourism where people come to the gallery only to see the scene of the crime,” the director explained.
In a scathing audit carried out just before the robbery, the Cour des comptes criticised the Louvre for spending €105mn on new artworks from 2018 to 2024, compared with only €3mn on security upgrades. As of late 2024, just 39 per cent of rooms were equipped with at least one security camera.
Leribault pointed to the hiring of a senior police officer to oversee security across the museum as evidence of a new approach. “He sits in an office only metres away from mine and has the task of introducing a culture of security across all departments,” he said.
Leribault is also overseeing a €1.1bn initiative championed by President Emmanuel Macron that aims to ease chronic overcrowding by creating a new entrance and a larger gallery for the “Mona Lisa”. Critics have argued that the Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance project should be shelved in favour of urgent security and other infrastructure upgrades.
But Leribault defended the project: “The renovation is key to improving security, both from outside threats and also from climate change, the risk of flooding from the Seine and overcrowding.”
About 40 per cent of the renovation cost will go towards replacing the museum’s archaic cooling and heating systems, which endanger fragile works, as well as upgrading toilets strained by 9mn visitors a year.
Leribault’s ornate Second Empire office, with its massive fireplace, is equipped only with portable heaters and a fan. “I’m moving out this week so works can begin,” the director said.
Leribault is seeking funds around the world as the French state will contribute only about one-third of the €1.1bn renovation. The Louvre’s Abu Dhabi outpost will provide €300mn in licensing fees, with the rest to come from wealthy individuals and companies. Leribault has travelled to the US and Japan in recent months to court donors, whom he said were “very welcoming”.
The pitch is that the Louvre will fund less glamorous work such as repairing roofs and rewiring galleries, leaving donations for the new entrance and “Mona Lisa” gallery.
He aims to complete the fundraising within “six months”, ahead of the presidential election, and secure enough backing to seek approval from the next government.
The stakes were high, he said, as leading museums around the world were also modernising to meet changing visitor expectations. “There is an ebullition at major museums, so we must keep up.”