What to know as the Louvre gets a new chief after a surprise resignation and a bruising year
ABC News
After months of pressure, the Louvre has a new director
PARIS -- After months of pressure, the Louvre has a new director.
Christophe Leribault was named to lead the landmark on Wednesday, half a day after the previous director, Laurence des Cars, resigned. The leadership change at the world’s most-visited museum comes after the October crown jewels heist and a string of failures that battered confidence in one of the country’s most prized institutions.
The rapid handover is meant to restore order at a museum hit by a punishing run of crises: the heist, labor unrest, water leaks, aging infrastructure and a suspected, decade-long $12 million ticket fraud scheme.
It also protects a politically loaded project for President Emmanuel Macron, who has made the Louvre overhaul a signature cultural legacy plan as he eyes the end of his term next year.
The government cast him as the steady hand for a battered institution, with responsibility for both the Louvre’s security overhaul and its modernization.
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