The head of security at the Louvre Museum was a diversity hire who was chosen because of her characteristics rather than “competence”, French sovereigntist politician Marion Maréchal said as she demanded heads roll after last week’s jewel heist.
The Louvre, the world’s largest museum, has undergone a process of forced “feminization” at the expense of “competence” which endangers France’s cultural heritage, French Member of the European Parliament Marion Maréchal of the famed right-wing Le Pen political dynasty has said. The remarks come as notable figures from France’s right decry last week’s audacious heist — called the largest museum robbery of a generation — as a total humiliation for the country on the world stage.
National Rally party leader — and Maréchal’s aunt — Marine Le Pen said the theft of artefacts of French history including emerald and sapphire earrings, necklaces, and tiaras is a “wound to the French soul” while her party colleague and protégé Jordan Bardella called the theft an “unbearable humiliation”.
Ultra-conservative leader Eric Zemmour took a broader view of attacks on French culture and said of the robbery: “Our churches are being vandalized, our heritage is being abandoned, and a simple freight elevator overcomes the security of the Louvre, the largest museum in the world. A country that does not protect its heritage is doomed to disappear. It is time for a revival.”
It was quickly revealed after the attack on the Louvre that long-promised security improvements are years behind schedule, and in the wing where the stolen jewels were housed, many rooms don’t even have basic equipment like security cameras. Urgent questions have been raised about why, given it was stated at the time of the robbery five museum staff were in the room, none of them intervened to prevent the theft.
Maréchal pointed to the recently-appointed head of security at the Louvre, stating that what are widely known as DEI policies to enforce gender balance on senior roles had eroded competence at the museum. She said “France has been the laughingstock of the world because of the ridiculous theft of the crown jewels at the Louvre” and called on France’s Minister of Culture Rachida Dati to demand resignations.
She said: “[The Minister] must demand the immediate resignation of the museum’s director Laurence Des Cars and the security chief Dominique Buffin, whom she appointed – [left-wing broadsheet newspaper] Le Monde was delighted – as part of a feminization policy. Evidently at the cost of forgoing competence and endangering the cultural heritage of our Nation.”
Director Des Cars was reportedly booed by staff when she attempted to address them in person after the heist at the weekend, according to The Times. Staff have previously gone on strike at the museum over overcrowding and security concerns in 2013, 2019, and 2025.
Culture Minister Dati rejected criticism of recent changes at the museum and insisted that, if there are problems, they are due to 40 years of “neglect” of the Louvre. Problems had been swept under the rug, she said, while ordering a nationwide review of security at other museums.
The display cabinets containing the stolen jewels were replaced in 2019, and whether these new, modernist designs were in fact of a lower quality than the more ornate ones they replaced has been a matter of speculation in the past few days. French satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné reported the older cabinets featured bullet-proof glass and a special security feature that would see the treasures inside automatically drop into a hidden vault below if the alarm was triggered.
France’s Le Figaro notes The Louvre moved to reject this emerging narrative on Tuesday, claiming — in spite of all evidence — that the new cases were a “considerable step forwards in terms of security”. The older cases with built-in hidden vaults were so obsolete that, if not replaced, the jewels would have been removed from display, they said.
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