Just weeks before the Louvre heist, we sat down with the museum's president and director Laurence des Cars to talk about the Renaissance of the Louvre.
On Sunday, about 30 minutes after the famed Louvre Museum in Paris opened to tourists and art lovers, a heist that will no doubt go down in infamy unfolded in just four minutes. A truck with a basket lift set up outside the museum carried a small crew of balaclava-clad people to the second floor of the Galerie d’Apollon, who allegedly forced open a window, smashed through cases containing what remains of France’s crown jewels, and escaped. Construction outside the Louvre helped cover their actions, according to reports. Ironically, French President Emmanuel Macron had recently launched a $1-billion project called “Louvre New Renaissance” to modernize the museum by, among other things, improving security.
Last month, before the heist, Louvre president-director Laurence des Cars was in Toronto speaking to university students and fundraising for the Louvre’s Renaissance. She spoke exclusively with the Star’s Deborah Dundas about art, giving the Mona Lisa its own wing, security, and the importance of sharing cultures. When reached this week, she had no further comments to add about the theft.
The first time I visited the Louvre was the day after 9/11. Security was heavy. People were worried that the Louvre might be a cultural target.
I was in New York on Sept. 11 and I was at the Met ... I know very much the feeling of what it was like to be in New York and America at that time.
And now, even more, we’re living in a very fractured world where cultural institutions are targets. How does the Louvre approach security?
Well, security is a very serious question for any museum in the world, but especially for the Louvre. I have a wonderful security team. I mean, half of the staff of the Louvre — the Louvre has about 2,300 people working there - half of it, about 1,000 (staff) is about security and welcoming people. They are working 24/7 (to make) things better. We are currently having a lot of meetings about the technological improvements that we will have in the future - how much will we be able to enjoy easier access with security control? We scan, for instance, the bags of visitors. How can we make it swifter (without compromising security). We are living, as you know, in a very fractured and sometimes violent world with terrorism acts and France is on the list of countries that could be targets. A place like the Louvre is, of course, a symbol, so we are very much aware of that.
What do you see is the role of a museum, especially in these divisive times?
I think there’s a duty of a museum. The museum cannot do everything, obviously — it cannot replace schools or university — but it can play a role at the heart of our cities to open minds, and maybe hearts, to the diversity of the history of the world, to respect different civilizations and cultures, to respect different religions.
You seem to be saying it’s about getting rid of the elitism in art.
It is a paradox, because, of course, we are about wonderful specialists ... But we cannot stay like this. The Louvre is about giving access to a larger audience. We are extremely popular — nine million visitors a year. So we have to give them (digital) tools ..., mediation tools. The way you will visit the Louvre in five years’ time will be different in terms of the tools that you will have. But I have to keep the different levels of experience in balance, because I think at the end of it all, the idea is really to be able to access easily the Louvre and to be in front of a real work of art and to enjoy it, to have emotion in front of it, because this is what museums are about. It’s a physical space.
Across the United States, museums are being asked to reexamine which histories to present and which to leave out, prompting renewed debate over censorship and representation. What are your thoughts on that?
We are all watching what is going on currently in the United States. I’m talking a lot with my American colleagues. America has extraordinary museums, extraordinary collections, extraordinary professionals, really, among the best in the world. I have a great admiration for my American colleagues and American institutions., It’s an awkward moment right now ... Knowledge, the sense of a public duty a museum should have and should be respected for, the sense of education, the sense of sharing, will prevail. I’m absolutely sure about that.
Have you ever experienced censorship?
No, I never experienced it in my career. I was very fortunate to experience the pure liberty of intellectual exercise and knowledge and always encountered a lot of respect towards it.
These debates (around censorship) are all over the world. They are also present, maybe at a lesser level of expression, in France. We probably should explain that museums are about knowledge, that knowledge is changing all the time. Take an ancient civilization like Egypt — the narratives are not the same today as they were 40 years ago. The Louvre Renaissance is about updating the Louvre, done with respect of the knowledge of scholars, of historians, and also accommodating different points of view. Museums are places of debates.
It always struck me as tragic in a way that people visiting the Louvre were flocking to see the Mona Lisa, going down that long hallway and passing paintings by Caravaggio without a glance.
And it’s why we decided to give Mona Lisa a proper gallery ... providing the quietness, the sereneness that you need to understand Leonardo’s vision ... It’s one of the first modern portraits in the history of art. This is not just Mona Lisa. This is a landmark in history. It’s the context and the beauty of it. When you look at a Leonardo da Vinci, if you give it five seconds, (that’s) not enough, you know you have to enter the painting, because obviously the mind of Leonardo is about the landscape, the very subtle way he places Mona Lisa, and the composition is extremely subtle.
Unfortunately, nobody pays attention (to the other works) because people are so obsessed by being in the queue and waiting for their few seconds and selfie ... in front of Mona Lisa. My heart breaks every time I go there. It’s painful for me. I must say, this is not what, the Louvre was about.
You’ve taken trips to, Kyiv in Ukraine and other places where artwork is in danger because of war. What is the role of the Louvre in that?
The Louvre has relationships with almost 80 countries in the world. We have this wonderful success — we have the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the heart of the modern Arab world. It’s really the success of French soft power and what we can do when we unite and work together with a partner that has a vision for culture and education. But we are also there for emergency situations, for excavations. We were present in Lebanon when the explosions in the harbour took place, and we are present in Iraq, helping the renovation of a museum in Mosul and the restoration of the extraordinary sculptures that have been completely savaged by Daesh. Our facility has the status of an international refuge for works of art. In Kyiv, we organized with the Aliph Foundation on (an) operation, with the complicity of the Ukrainian army, bringing works to the Polish border. And we took the works at the Polish borders to Paris.
You’re in Toronto to talk to university students about the future of curation, but you’re also here to fundraise for the new Louvre project. Funding for arts around the world is very tight right now - every museum, every institution, is fighting for it. Why should Canadian donors fund the Louvre?
The Louvre is a worldwide institution, it’s not only about France, it’s not only about Paris. It’s about a certain idea of culture and system of values that Canada and France share.,
In this project we share a commitment to excellence and values that are currently being challenged in a world marked by division, violence, and uncertainty . If you believe that it’s important to give newer generations, younger generations, generations to come, the wonderful masterpieces that we have been fortunate enough to know then you should be interested in supporting the Louvre in this effort.
The Louvre belongs to everyone. Visitors come from all over the world to enjoy a certain idea of culture, which is about openness, respect, knowledge and enjoyment of beauty, for beauty’s sake. We are dealing with fragments coming from thousands of centuries, and we are dealing with memories that are very precious in a world that tends to erase memory, erase history.