The president and director of the Louvre Museum, Christophe Leribault, has appointed Roxane Cénat as director of public reception and surveillance. She will take up her position on December 1, 2026, replacing Dominique Buffin, who has held this position since 2024. This appointment comes a few days after the signing of a social agreement providing in particular for the strengthening of the surveillance teams. It also marks the arrival at the head of this department of a manager whose entire career has been spent in the prison administration.
Director of penitentiary services outside class, Roxane Cénat worked for twenty-three years at the Ministry of Justice, in penitentiary establishments, integration and probation services, interregional directorates and the central administration. His career includes several responsibilities directly linked to the security of establishments and personnel management.
From 2019 to 2022, she was deputy director of the Poissy central house (Yvelines), an establishment welcoming people sentenced to long sentences. She then joined the central administration to work on violence prevention. In 2022, she is participating in the deployment of the national plan to combat violence in detention. This mission is notably responsible for preventing attacks and improving knowledge of incidents within penitentiary establishments.
In December 2024, she became deputy to the deputy director of expertise at the prison administration directorate, alongside Joachim Bendavid. This sub-department is involved in particular in the organization of services, legal expertise, research and evaluation.
His arrival at the Louvre comes in a particularly difficult context for the reception and surveillance teams. The theft of jewelry committed in the Apollo gallery in October 2025 highlighted the inadequacies of the museum’s security systems. It also strengthened the demands of agents concerning their workforce, their working conditions and the protection of collections.
On October 29, 2026, after nearly eleven months of mobilization, Christophe Leribault and the CGT, CFDT and SUD union organizations signed a protocol to end the strike. This provides in particular for the strengthening of the reception and surveillance teams, up to 100 additional agents in 2027, as well as commitments for the following years. It also includes a compensation increase of 350 euros in 2026 then 200 euros in 2027 for the agents concerned.
Flow management constitutes another challenge. The memorandum of understanding provides for the possibility of reducing the daily tonnage when attendance or works make visiting conditions difficult, as well as the use of compulsory reservations during the busiest periods.
The Quai François Mitterrand and, on the 1st floor of the Louvre, the balcony of the Galerie d’Apollon where the jewels stolen on October 19, 2025 were exhibited.
© Photo Ludovic Sanejouand
