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- Laurence des Cars before the Cultural Commission
of the French National Assembly
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In her hearing before the Cultural Commission of the French National Assembly on 19 November, Laurence des Cars, president-director of the Musée du Louvre, reiterated the same falsehoods, displaying the same assurance as she had before the Senate (see the article). Since some deputies (not all, however) seemed to listen to and believe all her nonsense, it is necessary to go through her explanations here, point by point. In this article, we will focus on her opening statement, but as it alluded to her previous appearance before this commission in April 2024, we will also recall what she had said on that occasion.
On 19 November, Laurence des Cars declared: « nearly a year and a half ago, in April 2024, I shared with you, here in full transparency, the challenges facing the Louvre. I regretted that our museum had remained on the sidelines of the major modernisation of international institutions and warned of the deterioration and obsolescence of the building’s technical infrastructure. Allow me to remind you of my words. We must be aware of the urgency. Thirty years after the completion of the Grand Louvre, we find ourselves at a crossroads. The status quo is no longer an option. This sentence resonates painfully today, exactly one month after the theft that took place at the Musée du Louvre. Since 2022, I have continually stressed the need to renovate the Louvre to meet the challenges of our time, whether they be security, climate, or digital, at the risk of seeing our museum suffer continuous downgrading ».
We listened to and transcribed this hearing from April 2024, which lasted a total of an hour and a half. Laurence des Cars’ introduction lasts a little over 23 minutes. In that hour and a half, not once are the words “security” or “safety” (nor “fire”) mentioned. During those 23 minutes, she spends 1 minute and 15 seconds on issues concerning technical master plans, clearly preferring to dwell on multiple topics, from opening the museum to all audiences to « a proactive policy on territorial action » and « the several-month residency that [the Louvre offered] to the contemporary music group Feu! Chatterton, which concluded with a series of very popular concerts », the creation of a ninth department, or the « redevelopment of the Department of Islamic Art ».
She also, it is worth noting today, boasted about the reopening of the Campana Gallery « a few months ago following a significant and very fine renovation ».
Above all, of course, she took the opportunity to introduce the subject of the “Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance” (not yet named at the time) to stress its compulsory nature. She thus « advocates the creation of a second major entrance to the Louvre ». Indeed, « thirty years after the Grand Louvre, it is an essential step in the museum’s transformation », and even, as she is not afraid of words, a « vital issue, absolutely necessary to relieve the Louvre, make it breathe differently, and make it truly more accessible ». She also mentions the temporary exhibition halls she wishes to create under the Cour Carrée: « there is still a need for a large temporary exhibition space, absent from the Grand Louvre’s specifications ». This was absent from the Grand Louvre’s specifications for an obvious reason: there were the exhibition halls of the Grand Palais, which still exist and have recently been extensively refurbished.
Finally, the third part of the “Grande Colonnade” project, a name recently given to this project integrated into “Nouvelle Renaissance”, the hall for the Mona Lisa, is also mentioned.
So this is what Laurence des Cars said a year and a half ago to the French National Assembly: nothing on security, everything on the “Grande Colonnade” part, linking it to master plans whose implementation she had delayed in order to present them as a “package” that could be sold as the major essential project for the Louvre.
She repeated it before the Commission on 19 November: « The creation of new museum access points and new exhibition spaces […] will solve the structural problems our museum faces daily. » Let us repeat: a major entrance, no; new reasonably sized entrances, yes; a new underground hall for the Mona Lisa, no; considering a solution to exhibit the Mona Lisa elsewhere, yes; new exhibition halls, no; using those of the Grand Palais, yes.
In her introduction on 19 November, Laurence des Cars began by supposedly wanting to refute false information: « I also want to take this opportunity to refute a number of false pieces of information that have circulated regarding the theft and, more broadly, the Louvre as a whole. ». Yet everything she says is incorrect. Either because the criticised information is imaginary, or because it is accurate. Let us examine them:
– « The anti-intrusion alarm placed on the French window of the Galerie d’Apollon had been faulty for several months and did not go off. This is false ». No one ever claimed that the alarm « had been faulty for several months ». It was we who revealed that it was out of order on 17 September and that false triggers were occurring. This point was confirmed by Laurence des Cars herself before the Senate. We had also reported internal rumours explaining that since that date (one month, not several months) the alarm had not been reactivated. This is apparently false information, which we had clearly stated we could not verify, and it has since never been taken up and has been contradicted. It is therefore no longer relevant.
– « We would have chosen to replace the old display cases in the Galerie d’Apollon with less safe but more aesthetic models. This is false ». She is right: it is false to claim the models were more aesthetic — they were much uglier. However, they were less safe, which has been widely proven.
– « The museum staff would not have followed safety protocols and would have failed in performing their duties. This is false. Utterly false ». What is false, utterly false, is suggesting that the museum staff were at fault. The one at fault is Laurence des Cars.
– « We would have prioritised lavish and unnecessary spending, favoured a costly acquisition policy, renovated museographic spaces to the detriment of investments ensuring the protection of artworks. This is false. Absolutely false ». Is it really necessary to revisit the « lavish and unnecessary spending » or the « renovation of museographic spaces » carried out « to the detriment of investments ensuring the protection of artworks »? Does the Court of Auditors, the Museums Inspection, and we ourselves therefore spread false information? As for the « costly acquisitions », only the Court of Auditors mentioned them, in our view incorrectly, even if the Louvre sometimes buys poorly.
According to Laurence des Cars: « these criticisms aimed only to tarnish [the]image [of the Louvre], to denigrate its actions and to scorn the daily commitment of the 2,200 people who serve it with pride ». But who, then, is out to get the Musée du Louvre, which apparently is the target of a conspiracy? At least this allows the Chair and CEO to « acknowledge [the staff] in front of [the parliamentarians] ». It must be quite a surprise for them, coming from someone who never greets people she passes.
The emergency measures which, according to Laurence des Cars, must be deployed by the end of the year are of three types:
– « the creation of a security coordinator position, directly reporting to the museum’s presidency ». This new position, whose creation had been announced by Rachida Dati, does not appear to be intended to replace that of the director of visitor services and security,
– « the installation of 100 perimeter cameras by the end of 2026 ». What was difficult suddenly becomes possible!
– « the installation of remote access equipment for the most sensitive buildings of the Louvre estate, by December ». We have already said: it is possible to implement remote solutions that are aesthetic and compatible with the character of the Louvre as a historic monument. Seeing what is already installed in the Cour Napoléon, one can legitimately be concerned…
Finally, still in this opening statement, Laurence des Cars explained: « in 2022, six months after I took office, a first project [for a master plan of security equipment] was presented to me. I wished to amend it, strengthen it, and decide, among other things, to generalise perimeter video surveillance of the Louvre, modernise the museum’s five command posts [and] include cybersecurity issues ».
We will see in a forthcoming article that all of this is false, utterly false: the master plan, which was presented to her three years ago, already included the renewal of the command posts, the new central command post with video wall, and, of course, cybersecurity.
One last staggering point. In response to a deputy’s question, Laurence des Cars dared to assert that, among the objectives set for her in her mission letter, none concerned security! As if this issue, which she claimed was « an absolute urgency » (see the article), should have been included in the objectives of the Chair and CEO of the Louvre! Is a surgeon tasked with not killing patients during operations?
How can she then add, observing that her objectives contained nothing on security, that it « at that time, was not seen as a priority »? One has to pinch oneself to believe it.