The Louvre is in deep crisis, traumatized by the theft of the crown last October and the unrelenting unrest in the weeks and months since. According to President Emmanuel Macron, the mission of the new board president, Christophe Lelibault, is one of “appeasement.”
Lelibeau’s arrival on February 25 coincided with Macron’s appointment of close ally Catherine Pégard as culture minister following the resignation of Rashida Dati, who resigned to run in the Paris mayoral election in March. In both cases, the contrast between the characters is striking. Mr. Pegal, 71, is as measured and measured as Mr. Dati is outspoken. Lelibeau, 62, is a genuine art historian with a modest demeanor. The reign of his predecessor, Laurence de Cal, has been criticized for being autocratic and favoring style over substance.
Mr. Lelibeau, the former head of Versailles, arrived after Mr. de Cale’s desperate five-month fight to save his job. A series of management failures were identified in scathing reports from various groups and Congressional hearings following the robbery.
De Caer called the ruling “unfair” because, as the Cour des Comtes (France’s national auditing agency) put it, the Louvre had “continued to delay significantly in deploying security equipment” in favor of an “event-driven policy”. However, less than 0.3% of the budget was allocated to public safety and fire prevention. In a strategy document prepared before the theft, Mr. de Cars had concluded that theft was no longer a threat to the museum.
“These deficiencies made the robbery possible,” said Pierre Moscovici, chairman of Cour des Comtes. A parliamentary hearing revealed that upon taking office in 2021, Mr. de Cars chose to reverse the safety plan laid out by his predecessor in favor of a grand vision for a new entrance to the museum, which Mr. Macron enthusiastically supported.
Along with the harrowing news coverage, disasters followed, including flooding, damage to structural beams, the discovery of a large-scale ticket fraud, and even a 40% increase in ticket prices for non-European tourists. Union representative Elise Muller described De Case’s management style as “top-down, arrogant and fragile.” According to the Cour des Comptes newspaper, the manager doubled the salaries of his management team and spent 500,000 euros on setting up a private dining room.
Starting in mid-December, employees staged regular strikes in an unprecedented protest movement. Alexis Corbiere, rapporteur of the Congressional Inquiry Committee, criticized the “hyper-presidential system” in which “the board makes all decisions on its own.” In a damning verdict, colleague Alexandre Poitier said: “In any other country or regime, this list of failures would have led to the director’s resignation long ago.”
Des Cars, who rarely gives interviews, did not respond to requests for comment. She has missed up to two Congressional hearings since her resignation.
Does Relibo have the power necessary to repair the damage? His resume is impressive. An avid student of art history, he studied at the Sorbonne, the École du Louvre, and the Medici Villa in Rome, where he wrote a dissertation between 1770 and 1830 on the interiors of Parisian mansions and on the French Rococo painter Jean-François de Troyes (1679-1752).
Career in Paris museums
Aside from stints at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (where he says he survived without a driver’s license) and the Wallace Collection in London, Leriveau spent most of his career in museums in Paris. He spent 16 years at the Musée Carnavalet, specializing in Paris history, and then joined the Louvre’s graphics department, where he worked for six years, looking after the small Musée national Eugène Delacroix in the artist’s workshop.
In 2012, he was appointed director of the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris, where he organized original exhibitions of lesser-known or forgotten artists, with stunning scenography, a far cry from the staid exhibition at the Louvre. He promoted shows and acquisitions of Scandinavian, Russian, Swiss, and British artists, organized Oscar Wilde’s first show in France, and formed an outstanding Pre-Raphaelite collection. Attendance jumped from 300,000 in 2012 to 1.2 million in 2018.
In 2021, he was appointed director of the Musée d’Orsay, but just two years later he was suddenly called in by President Macron to replace Pégard, who had controversially held the post at Versailles for three years after retiring.
But Lelibeau’s biggest challenge is fixing the mess at the Louvre. Artist Eric Desmajières, a fellow member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, describes him as “a modest, elusive man.” (Lriveau declined to be interviewed for this article.)
Relief for Louvre Museum staff
One curator, who asked not to be named, said staff at the Louvre breathed a collective sigh of relief. “The atmosphere changed as the days went by,” he says. “Everyone felt at ease. He knows the place, he knows everyone. He left great memories in his six years working here. He has always paid attention to the human side of the work, and he has the innovative ability to take us even further. That said, we all know that the challenges are immense.”
A former manager of the Louvre says the museum’s infrastructure is partially in ruins. “Emergency repairs, as well as maintenance work, have been suspended for five years,” he says. “In all, the museum has spent at least eight years on even the most basic structural updates.”
The Government and Parliament agree that the implementation of the technical master plan, which will cost an estimated €480 million, must be given top priority. The elephant in the room is the pharaoh’s project for a new entrance, leading to a 93,000 square meter underground complex around the room. mona lisa and an exhibition hall that President Macron still supports. The estimated budget for this part has already increased from 400 million euros to 666 million euros. The plan was deemed “financially unsound” by the Cour des Comptes and was also criticized in Parliament. Sponsorship funding, set at 300 million euros, has not yet been found. Technical studies on the risk of underground flooding, particularly along the Seine, are still inconclusive.
However, Des Cars had already launched an architectural competition, which has now been canceled. In this year’s budget, she included €100 million in spending on a preliminary study of the controversial project. Only €17 million was allocated to the technical master plan, €1.8 million to collection safety and €500,000 to fire protection.
The staff union deems the new enrollment plan “insane” and demands it be cancelled. Finding ways to “appease” staff and angry MPs while navigating Macron’s desires will require all the professional talent and dexterity Leriveau can muster.
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