The Louvre’s terrible year just got a new chapter. After months of strikes, a ticket-fraud scandal, and the brazen theft of jewels, director Laurence des Cars has resigned, effective immediately (AP). Macron has already named a replacement: Christophe Leribault, the head of Versailles and a former Louvre deputy director, steps into what may be the most challenging museum job in the world (The Guardian). Institutional governance is having a moment on this side of the Atlantic too — the COO of Atlanta’s High Museum has resigned after an independent review found $600,000 missing, now referred to federal prosecutors (11 Alive).
Volunteers calling themselves Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian have been photographing every wall text in the institution’s museums before the administration can rewrite them (The Washington Post). At the University of North Texas, a leaked transcript reveals the dean openly citing political pressure as the reason for canceling an art show with anti-ICE content (ARTnews).
Composer Éliane Radigue, who spent three decades coaxing entire worlds from a single ARP 2500 synthesizer before turning to acoustic music, has died at 94 (Pitchfork). And in brighter building news, the Atlanta Opera has broken ground on a $72 million campus repurposing a century-old golf clubhouse along the Beltline (Atlanta Magazine).
All of our stories below.
