ART

Art historian Michel Laclotte was appointed director of Paris’ Louvre by French President Francois Mitterrand on Wednesday. Laclotte, 57, replaced Michel Delignat-Lavaut at the museum that houses the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and thousands of other masterpieces. A specialist in French painting and author of several art history books, Laclotte will have the responsibility of rearranging the Louvre’s vast collections and expanding into the museum’s northern wings that were recently vacated by the Finance Ministry.