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“It is a security failure and, more broadly, a failure for everyone.” This is what Rachida Dati has just declared in an interview on TF1 (ill. 1) concerning the report by the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Culture on the Louvre heist. Everyone, really? If everyone is responsible, then no one is.
Yet the Inspectorate, according to the Minister, made several observations — all damning for the museum’s president-director. The first: “a chronic and structural underestimation of the risk of intrusion and theft, persisting for far too long.” Too long? What will she do — refuse to renew Jean-Luc Martinez’s term? He’s no longer there [1]! Whatever the previous responsibilities, Laurence des Cars has been in office for four years and claims to have made security an “absolute priority.”
We have shown that this was false (see notably this article). The inspection report drives the point home. The Louvre is suffering, in fact, from “insufficient security systems to counter intrusions and theft.” Still according to the Minister, speaking of the report, “the emergency protocols and those dedicated to the risk of theft and intrusion are obviously completely obsolete. It also denounces ‘an organisation and governance absolutely unsuited to the risk of theft and intrusion”, and the Minister adds: “because it was not a priority”, which is exactly the opposite of what Laurence des Cars claims.
Thus, thanks to the report, we discover that nothing was working. The Minister therefore announces a rapid action plan: “we must review the governance and organisation of this Louvre Museum.” Laurence des Cars will therefore be dismissed? Not at all! Even though, when the journalist asked, “Do you have full confidence in Laurence des Cars to carry out this task?” Rachida Dati carefully avoided answering, she had nevertheless already explained that she would ask “Laurence des Cars, the president of the Louvre Museum, to quickly convene an emergency board meeting.”
We must therefore conclude that Laurence des Cars, president for four years, is now to correct Laurence des Cars’s own glaring failures in addressing the risks of intrusion and theft.
Among the measures recommended by the Minister, one notes the creation of “a new Directorate for Safety and Security within the presidency” in order to have “a global view of intrusion and theft risks with a truly coherent strategy.” But this directorate already exists; it already reports directly to the president and is headed by Dominique Buffin! It is difficult to follow.
By the end of 2025, a “comprehensive audit” is to be carried out “on the risks of intrusion and theft in this museum.” This is rather strange, given that Laurence des Cars, during her hearing in the Senate, stated: “I have accelerated the development of a master plan (for the modernisation of security equipment)” and that “from 2022 to 2024, studies were conducted […] to carry out a complete assessment of the state of our equipment and define the programme of works. The contracts were launched at the end of 2024 for works scheduled to begin in the first half of 2026.”
We must therefore conclude that this “complete assessment” is, in fact, completely defective (or nonexistent?) since a new “comprehensive audit” must now be undertaken on the same matter...
Photo: Didier Rykner
It is also revealed that “Training for staff assigned to security will be mandatory”, which means that it was not before. Finally, “external security systems” will be installed around the museum, including “anti-ram and anti-intrusion devices.” One can only hope these will take into account the Louvre’s status as a Historic Monument. For such devices already exist in the Cour Napoléon. But instead of installing elegant stone bollards, as has been possible, for over ten years the Louvre has used entirely unsuitable metal barriers, recently doubled (ill. 2). Yet another demonstration of the utter amateurism of this management, which can no longer, decently, remain in place [2].