Laurence des Cars, president of the Louvre, is under pressure to resign after a tense Senate hearing on Wednesday, October 2025, following the theft of $102 million worth of imperial jewels. Lawmakers questioned her failure to act on security warnings from audits commissioned in 2017 and 2018 by her predecessor, Jean-Luc Martinez. Des Cars claimed she was unaware of those audits until after the theft. In response, she has accelerated a $92 million security plan, including 100 additional cameras, a new security coordination hire, and a 20% budget increase for staff training. She also announced a new internal audit on information sharing within the museum's bureaucracy, which she described as disorganized.
This affair matters because it has evolved into a broader reckoning over governance and transparency at the world’s most visited museum. The theft has exposed systemic security failures and sparked a strike by Louvre workers, with union members and right-leaning politicians calling for Des Cars to step down. The controversy also threatens to overshadow her ambitious Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance project—a $1 billion renovation supported by President Emmanuel Macron that includes a separate entrance for the Mona Lisa and a 45% ticket price hike for non-European visitors. The outcome could set a precedent for accountability at major cultural institutions.