Louvre director resigns after historic jewelry heist exposed security flaws

Marked as one of history's biggest daring heists, involving the theft of historical Napoleonic jewels, the Louvre chief resigned from the museum over failed security.

French President Emmanuel Macron accepted the resignation on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, of the head of Paris' Louvre museum, which has been grappling with the fallout from a high-profile jewel heist and rolling strikes.

Museum chief staff Laurence des Cars tendered her resignation, "praising an act of responsibility at a time when the world's largest museum needs calm and a strong new impetus to successfully carry out major projects involving security and modernization," his office said.

Des Cars has faced intense criticism since burglars made off in October with jewels worth an estimated $102 million that are still missing, exposing glaring security gaps at the world's most-visited museum.

Strikes over pay and conditions since December have also led to regular closures and added to a list of woes that included two water leaks as well as a massive ticket fraud investigation.

Critics, including the state auditors' office, have questioned the museum's low spending on security and infrastructure maintenance while it made lavish purchases of new artwork, only a quarter of which is open to the public, and spent heavily on post-pandemic relaunch projects.

Des Cars, who was appointed in 2021 and became the first woman to steer the Louvre, underscored in the announcement that she had repeatedly warned of the museum’s outdated infrastructure throughout her tenure. 

She stated that the heist “gave unprecedented resonance to a truth that I have been constantly reminding people of since I took office: although the Louvre is the largest museum in the world, a national marvel that houses countless masterpieces, it is nonetheless fragile.”