An ugly year at the Louvre: what next for the world’s largest museum?

Laurence des Cars resigned as president of the Louvre after warning officials about the museum’s advanced state of disrepair. Barely a week after she highlighted leaking ceilings, damaging temperature swings and outdated facilities, she stood with Emmanuel Macron to unveil the €1bn “Louvre: New Renaissance” renovation.

The year that followed brought rolling strikes, a decade‑long ticket fraud, mounting infrastructure failures and a daylight heist of €88m of crown jewels. The Louvre covers some 360,000 sq metres, with more than 400 rooms, about nine miles of corridors and a collection exceeding 600,000 items, roughly 35,000 on permanent display.

Intended for about 4 million visitors a year, it drew around 9 million last year. Des Cars’ scheme would give the Mona Lisa its own room with separate access, add exhibition space beneath the Cour Carrée and create a new entrance at the Colonnade de Perrault; critics call the plan pharaonic and argue the estimated €1.1bn-plus cost should instead fund urgent repairs.

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