France: Laurence des Cars appointed head of the Louvre
Until then director of the Musée d'Orsay, Laurence des Cars was appointed head of the Louvre on May 26, 2021. AFP - ALAIN JOCARD
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3 min
The first woman to head the largest museum in the world, Laurence des Cars, 54, currently president of the Musée d'Orsay, was chosen on Wednesday May 26 by the Élysée to succeed Jean-Luc Martinez at the head of the Louvre.
She will take up her post on September 1.
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Daughter of journalist and writer Jean des Cars, granddaughter of successful novelist Guy des Cars, Laurence des Cars was chosen for her openness to social debates and to the world.
Her management of the Musée d'Orsay was marked by the exhibition “
The black model
”, which was so successful that she decided to expand the exhibition spaces, while opening up access to the museum to a young audience.
It also mobilized for the return of works looted by the Nazis.
Because for her, "
a great museum must look history in the face
".
A specialist in 19th and early 20th century art, Laurence des Cars studied at the Sorbonne and the Louvre School and then joined the National Heritage School.
She obtained her first position as curator at the Musée d'Orsay in 1994 and remained there until 2007, when she was appointed scientific director of the France Museum agency responsible for the development of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
She will then successively direct the Musée de l'Orangerie and the Musée d'Orsay from 2017.
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To listen: The reopening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates
Museum with a "
universal vocation
"
His first step in taking over the management of the Louvre on September 1 will be the creation of a ninth department devoted to Byzantium and the Christians of the East. This Wednesday morning on France Inter, Laurence des Cars unveiled her project for the Louvre: “
Reflect today on what a universal museum was, since it is a bit like the label that we stick to the Louvre. Wrongly, moreover, because it is not quite a universal museum: there are not all the arts, there are not all civilizations and cultures at the Louvre. But there is a universal vocation of the Louvre, and that's what interests me, it's this potential. And in this potential, the Louvre can be fully contemporary because it can open up precisely to the world of today,
while telling us about the past . "
“
We live in complicated, exciting but complicated times,”
continues Laurence des Cars.
We are all a little lost in our bearings.
The first visitors we welcomed last Wednesday, there were tears in their eyes.
And they said to us: "We missed it so much!"
Because what is the encounter with the work of art?
It is opening your mind to a different sensitivity and finding yourself.
And that is the experience of the museum: it is an experience that is unique.
The more you get lost in the halls of the Louvre, the more you will find yourself.
"
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To read also: “Traffic in antiques”: an exhibition at the Louvre Museum
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