Laurence des Cars, here awarded the Woman of Cultural Influence Prize in 2019, is the new president of Louvr – Thierry Stefanopoulos – Marlyse Press
Already at the helm of the Musée d’Orsay and soon to be the first woman president of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars thus found herself at the head of two temples of art in the space of a few years. Daughter of journalist and writer Jean des Cars, granddaughter of novelist Guy des Cars, this specialist in 19th and early 20th century art wants to be a director of her time, mobilizing for wider access of young people to museum, for the restitution of works looted by the Nazis or for exhibitions linked to current debates.
She is notably behind the exhibition event “The black model” in 2019 at the Musée d’Orsay, which is so successful that she has decided to expand the spaces.
At the head of the Musée d’Orsay since 2017
After studying art history at Paris IV-Sorbonne University and at the Louvre School, Laurence des Cars joined the National Heritage School and took her first position as curator at the Musée d’Orsay in 1994. , where she remained until 2007. It was during this period that she curated several exhibitions in collaboration with international museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Academy of Art in London or the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. .
She was appointed scientific director of the France-Muséums agency in July 2007, French operator responsible for the development of the Louvre Abu Dhabi then promoted to the body of general heritage curators in 2011. Her career took a new turn when she was appointed in 2014 director of the Musée de l’Orangerie and then in 2017 of the Musée d’Orsay.
“Visitors of all ages and all socio-cultural backgrounds”
Under his mandate, the number of visitors to Orsay, one of the largest museums in Europe for the period from 1848 to 1914, continued to grow: up to 3,700,000 visitors in 2019, with a level of self-financing reaching 64%. In the midst of a pandemic, the director is embarking on “Orsay wide open”, a project that will expand the museum, thanks in particular to a donation of 20 million euros from an anonymous American patron. Objective: more exhibition spaces, an educational center of 650 m2 and an international research center which will be inaugurated in 2024, a dimension dear to the historian.
During an interview with AFP in April, Laurence des Cars underlined her vision of a museum whose program would be anchored “within the great challenges of society, thus attracting new generations”. “In a world that can heckle, reject the museum”, she wants to address “visitors of all ages and all socio-cultural origins.”
Under his leadership, the Ministry of Culture launches the restitution procedure for Gustav Klimt’s painting, Roses under the trees, kept at the Musée d’Orsay, to the beneficiaries of Nora Stiasny who was looted in Vienna in August 1938 by the Nazis. “A large museum must face history,” she commented, including looking back at the very history of our institutions. “