It is with serenity and determination that Laurence Des Cars has taken the reins of the largest museum in the world.

The first women

For the first time, a woman presides over the most visited museum in the world: the Louvre. The President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Minister of Culture, has indeed chosen Laurence des Cars, until now president of the public establishment of the Orsay and Orangerie museums. Laurence des Cars is a descendant of an old family of French nobility (Pérusse des Cars), daughter of the journalist of crowned heads, Jean, and granddaughter of the successful novelist, Guy, Des Cars.

A universal and contemporary museum

At 54, this general curator of heritage has a fine career : she was the scientific director of the Agence France Museum, in charge of the Louvre Abu Dhabi project, and has a unanimously acclaimed record at Orsay. Its original exhibitions, in tune with societal concerns such as the black model, and its openness to today’s artists, from singer Abd al Malik to visual artist Laurent Grasso, have hit the mark with a rejuvenated and diversified public, with 3 .8 million visitors on arrival in 2016 and 4.7 in 2019. It can also boast of a major donation from Marlene Hays in 2019, and a courageous stance on the sensitive subject of looted property, with the return of the only Klimt held by French museums. Of the Louvre, she wants to make, she says, a “universal, contemporary museum to help understand what is at stake in our time”.