Is Christophe Leribault the go-to figure Emmanuel Macron moves from one institution to another to put out fires? The curator, appointed in 2024 to head the Château de Versailles to succeed Catherine Pégard, whose extended interim leadership had begun to raise concerns, is now being propelled to the presidency of the Louvre Museum. The appointment, first reported by Le Parisien, was confirmed to Le Monde. At 63, he replaces Laurence des Cars, who resigned on Tuesday amid a crisis triggered by the theft of crown jewels on October 19. Leribault, a specialist in 18^th-century art and the painter Jean-François de Troy, had previously vied for the Louvre post in 2021. It is a return to a familiar palace for him: In 2006, he was appointed curator in the museum’s Department of Graphic Arts.

The native of Val-d’Oise, north of Paris, began his career at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, joining in 1990. For 15 years, he was responsible for paintings and drawings there, taking just a one-year break at the Villa Médicis in Rome, where he was a resident in 1995-1996. After a year at the Louvre, he became director in 2007 of the Eugène-Delacroix National Museum in Paris, before being named director in 2012 of the Petit Palais, home to the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts. He remained there for nine years, building a reputation with inventive, decidedly unconventional exhibitions that sent visitor numbers soaring. He went on to be appointed president of the Musée d’Orsay in 2021, succeeding des Cars there, too.

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