Tourists stand next to barriers blocking the plaza with the Louvre Pyramid, designed by Chinese-US architect Ieoh Ming Pei, as the Louvre Museum is closed due a strike in Paris on January 12, 2026. MARTIN LELIEVRE / AFP
"Systemic failures" led to the $100-million robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris last year, MPs leading an inquiry said on Thursday, February 19, raising pressure on embattled director Laurence des Cars. Presenting an interim assessment of their work after 70 hearings, inquiry leaders Alexandre Portier and Alexis Corbière openly questioned why des Cars remained in her position.
"The Louvre theft is not an accident. It reveals systemic failures at the museum," Portier told a press conference, adding that the institution had been "in denial about risk." Saying that management "is currently failing," he underlined that "in quite a few countries and institutions" this would have led the director to step down.
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