Laurent Le Bon, president of the Picasso Museum in the Marais district of Paris. After years of drama-filled renovations, it is to reopen on Oct. 25.CreditAgnes Dherbeys for The New York Times

With his horn-rimmed glasses and charcoal-gray suits, Laurent Le Bon is an unlikely Zorro to rescue the long-closed Musée Picasso here in the Marais quarter.

When the state appointed him president in June and dispatched him on this emergency mission, French headlines hailed Mr. Le Bon in the name of that fictional masked outlaw who battled tyrannical officials. And riffing on an English translation of his last name and his reputation for diplomacy, curators in the international art world called him Larry the Good.

His task: reopen the museum’s regal 17th-century mansion after five years of construction and renovation, with several missed start dates and an employee revolt that led to the firing in May of the previous president on the grounds of autocratic management.....Continue Reading

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