The new director. (Courtesy the Louvre)

French President François Hollande has tapped the head of the Louvre's department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities, Jean-Luc Martinez, who is trained as an archaeologist, to be the museum's new director. The New York Times has the news. On April 15 Mr. Martinez will replace Henri Loyrette, who has held the post since 2001.

France's culture minister, Aurélie Filippetti, in a statement, praised Mr. Martinez as “a great curator who throughout his career has been motivated by a desire to share with the public his passion for art and the fruits of his erudition.”

Ms. Filippetti had actually been rooting for Sylvie Ramond, the director of the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lyon, France, to be selected. Ms. Ramond would have been the first woman to hold the position. From The Times:

Some critics felt that Ms. Ramond’s credentials fell short of what was necessary for managing the museum and curating its large catalog. Others argued that Ms. Filippetti was championing a woman for the post solely on the grounds of equality.

Also in the running was Laurent Le Bon, the head of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, but some critics were not in love with the idea of having a modern and contemporary art specialist in the top slot, likening the move to putting "an installation by Jeff Koons opposite the Mona Lisa.” Wouldn't want that.

Congratulations, Mr. Martinez.

"[Louvre director] Henri Loyrette and myself have been wanting to do a joint project between the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou for some time," Alain Seban, chairman, CEO and director of the Centre Pompidou, told The Observer by e-mail. "We both support and follow with great attention Loris's work so we easily agreed on his name to initiate what we hope might be only the start of a durable cooperation between the two institution."

“I was the lucky guy,” Mr. Gréaud, said by phone from Paris. “Of course, I said yes.” He requested two years of preparation time after being asked. “I’m very excited, but very scared at the same time, but very excited,” the artist said, and let out a laugh.

Mr. Gréaud, 33 (“like the Christ,” he said), was working in his studio when we spoke, editing movies on his laptop and preparing shipments. He has a lot to take care of before the Louvre-Pompidou double-header, like his debut at the Pace Gallery in New York in May. Despite widespread acclaim in France (he opened a solo show at the Palais de Tokyo at the age of 29) and appearances in Performa 09 and the 2009 New Museum triennial, it will be his first one-person outing in New York.

For the past three years, he’s also been at work on a short film called The Snorks: a Concert for Creatures, which features David Lynch and Charlotte Rampling. “It’s about a concert for deep-sea creatures,” the artist said. He’s signed up the New York avant hip-hop collective Anti-Pop Consortium to produce the soundtrack, and its members make an appearance in the film.

Though it's too soon to discuss details of his Louvre-Pompidou exhibition, Mr. Gréaud offered some hints about his Pace show, “The Unplayed Notes.”

“It’s about the incineration of my work, and my artist proof,” he told us, referring to the edition of an artwork typically reserved for the artist, and often most coveted by collectors. “The heat of the incineration will create real material energy that will be able to produce something.”

As for the grand undertaking ahead of him, Mr. Gréaud sounded unconcerned. “I’m really prepared for the nightmare that it could produce,” he said. “I like that.”

Click the slide show above to see works by Mr. Gréaud.

A rendering of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. (Courtesy Nouvel Ateliers)

After a number of delays reportedly related to the worldwide economic crisis and its own fiscal health, Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company is moving forward with plans to build a branch of Paris's Louvre on Saadiyat Island in the emirate, the UAE's The National paper reports.

The TDIC has asked contractors to file applications to complete the ambitious building project, which is now years behind its original schedule. The Khaleej Times has a nice blurb about what the Jean Nouvel-designed project will look like when it's finished:

[T]he 24,000-square metre Louvre Abu Dhabi is conceived as a complex of pavilions, plazas, alleyways and canals, evoking the image of a city floating on the sea.

The National notes that the timetable for the various projects on Saadiyat Island going forward calls for the Zayed National Museum to open in 2016, and the Guggenheim to open in 2017.