Christophe Leribault Appointed Director of the Louvre
21Feb. 26, 2026
Just one day after Laurence des Cars resigned as director of theLouvre,Christophe Leribaulthas been announced as her successor. French dailyLe Parisienreported that Leribault, since 2024 the director of the Palace of Versailles, was appointed to the role by President Emmanuel Macron, who announced the change at a February 25 Council of Ministers meeting.
This is the second time Leribault, 63, has replaced Des Cars; in 2021, after she left to join the Louvre, he succeeded her as director of the Musée D’Orsay. He took the reins at Versailles after interim director Catherine Pégard’s leadership “began to raise concerns,” according toLe Monde, which earlier today speculated as to whether Leribault is “the go-to figure Emmanuel Macron moves from one institution to another to put out fires.”
Leribault, who specializes in eighteenth-century art and the painter Jean-François de Troy, has spent his entire career in Paris. He got his start in 1990 at the Musée Carnavalet, where he worked for fifteen years before taking a position as curator in the Louvre’s Department of Graphic Arts in 2006. He left the following year to become director of the Eugène-Delacroix National Museum, and in 2012 was named director of the Petit Palais, home to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. In 2021, he threw his hat in the ring for the Louvre directorship after longtime leader Jean-Luc Martinez was removed: Des Cars won the job, and Leribault instead took charge of a major redevelopment begun under her watch at the Musée d’Orsay.
At the Louvre, a government spokesperson told Le Monde, Leribault will “strengthen the safety and security of the building, the collections and the people, to restore a climate of trust and to carry out, with all the teams, the necessary transformations at the museum.” The institution in recent months suffered a $102 million jewel theft and learned of the possible loss of an additional $12 million through a ticket fraud scheme believed to have spanned a decade. Other troubles include worker dissatisfaction, which has led to a series of strikes; infrastructure woes, including leaks; and overcrowding. The solution to this last—the planned construction of a new entrance as well as that of a separate viewing chamber for the Mona Lisa—was put on ice earlier this month.
Macron at the same Council of Ministers meeting appointed Annick Lemoine director of the Musée d’Orsay and the Orangerie. Lemoine, who is director of the Petit Palais, replaces Sylvain Amic, who died last summer. She will begin her new role on March 19.