Changing Seasons, Changing Stations: New Louvre Director Appointed
By Millie Barker
Following the resignation of Laurence des Cars on February 24th, the appointment of the new Louvre director, Christophe Leribault, was announced last Wednesday. Des Cars offered her resignation following the heist of October 19th but was rejected at the time by minister for culture, Rachida Dati. The resignation does not come as a surprise given the increasing troubles the Louvre faces, with multiple staff walkouts over pay and working conditions since December, two damaging water leaks, and a ticket fraud investigation – let alone the increasing security concerns.
Christophe Leribault at Versailles, April 2025.
Image Courtesy of Inès Manai for Art Basel.
The latter investigation, that was concluded early this February with the arrest of two museum staff members and several tour guides after a decade long ticket fraud scheme targeting Chinese tour groups was uncovered. The scheme, which involved the reuse of tickets and the splitting of tour groups to avoid standing fees, is believed to have cost the Louvre over 10 million euros.
The appointment has fashioned a pattern as Leribault previously succeeded des Cars at the Musee d’Orsay in 2021. While managing these problems and steering the museum through this reputational crisis, Leribault will also oversee Macron’s renovation project. Part of the initiative, estimated to cost over 800 million euros, began on January 14th as non-EU residents tariff charges increased by 45% to 37 euros per ticket. The price hike is expected to help raise between 15 and 20 million dollars each year which will go towards restoration and maintenance.
Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Linear Burn, 2025 Oil and acrylic on canvas, 127 × 76 × 5 cm.
Image Courtesy: the artist and Anat Ebgi.
Meanwhile, last week saw Los Angeles solidify its status as a global art capital with flourishing art fairs, fashion, and a high dose of glamour. Headlines centred on the Frieze, now in its seventh edition, as more than one hundred international and local galleries were hosted at Santa Monica Airport. During the Frieze there were two notable acquisitions by the Californian African American Museum (CAAM) – a painting by Jessica Taylor Bellamy and a wall-based sculpture by Zenobia Lee – contributing to supporting Black emerging artists for nearly 50 years. In other news, R.F Alvarez’s painting ‘A Softness’ (2026), depicting a scene in Heated Rivalry, was sold for $14,500 at the Felix Art Fair. Not merely a media sensation, the inclusion demonstrates how the series has struck a deeper chord within the cultural community.
Auguste Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876, oil on canvas, 131.5 x 176.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Image Courtesy of Mathieu Rabeau for the Musée d’Orsay.
On a similar theme, ‘Renoir and Love’ was announced to open in the National Gallery, London on October 3rd following its opening at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris next month. The press release from the Musée d’Orsay states how ‘his couples are often part of a vast network of social and emotional interactions (friends, parents, children, etc.). Love, understood as a fundamental force binding human beings to each other and to nature, guided his inspiration.’ It is remarkable how such motifs endure across epochs – indeed just as Renoir’s representations of modern love challenged the bourgeois conventions and religious morality of his era, Heated Rivalry has confronted conventional ideas about masculinity in mainstream media.
Bibliography
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Shaw, Cameron. “‘A Time for Action’: How CAAM is Supporting Black Emerging Artists at Frieze Los Angeles.” Frieze, February 28, 2026. https://www.frieze.com/video/camm-supporting-black-emerging-artists-frieze-los-angeles-2026