Louvre director warns the museum could close without a renovation

A warning one year after the heist

Christophe Leribault, who was appointed director of the Louvre in February 2026, has warned that the Paris museum could be forced to close to the public unless a large-scale renovation goes ahead. In an interview with Le Figaro published on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, he said the building is in poor condition and overcrowded. He took over after Laurence des Cars resigned in the wake of a daytime theft on 19 October 2025, in which eight crown jewels were stolen. Leribault told the paper that whoever forms the next government will need to act on the building.

If the Louvre is not repaired, updated and transformed, it will very quickly fall behind and will eventually have to close its doors to the public.

He called that outcome a disaster. His warning came days before the first anniversary of the theft, which exposed weak points in the museum's security and left some of the stolen pieces still unrecovered.

Security works under way

Leribault says the museum, which received nearly nine million visitors in 2025, has installed new cameras, protective bollards and anti-ram barriers, and has begun renovating the grilles around its grounds. A new security coordinator joined his team in July. The 83 million euro security master plan, whose delays had been criticised after the theft, is moving ahead quickly, he told AFP. The plan includes a new security director post, a modernised camera network to replace old cameras with significant gaps, and tighter surveillance of the perimeter and access points. Leribault adds that the museum must stay open to its millions of visitors while the work continues.

Renovation plans and disputed costs

Leribault defends the Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance project, which Emmanuel Macron presented in January 2025, as the only route to securing the museum's future. Work has already started on escalators, door frames, lighting, ceilings and air conditioning, and some collections, such as those in the Campana gallery, will be moved temporarily. He expects the entrance colonnade and new exhibition rooms to be operational in five or six years, with full renovation taking 12 to 15 years. Macron has defended a 600 million euro renovation, while 20minutes describes the project as valued at more than one billion euros and notes that unions contest it. ARTnews reports that Leribault had earlier put the cost at $1.24 billion, and he is also seeking 360 million euros in patronage funding.

Leribault rejects a quick fix, arguing that the problems are connected.

Everything is interconnected, everything is linked.

An earlier competition to choose an architect was postponed in February after Louvre workers protested that the plan focused too heavily on moving the Mona Lisa to its own gallery at the expense of systemic problems. In May the project resumed, with Selldorf Architects and Studios Architecture Paris named as the winners.

Pressure on the next government

Prime minister Sébastien Lecornu is struggling to control public spending and reduce France's large deficit, and successive minority governments have struggled for years to pass annual budgets. Leribault's call for significant public funding will land after next year's national elections, when a new government takes shape. Public money already covers nearly 100 million euros of the museum's 330 million euro budget. Leribault's comments come as the museum still works to close the security gaps the theft exposed. Some of the stolen jewels have still not been recovered.