Laurence des Cars before the French National Assembly: false, utterly false!

Laurence des Cars before the Cultural Commission
of the French National Assembly
Screenshot

See the image in its page

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…