From 1891 to 1903 he served as director of the French School at Athens, during which time, he was in charge of an important excavation at Delphi.The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Volume 7 edited by Michael Gagarin From 1904 to 1911 he was director of national museums (Louvre), but was forced to relinquish this position due to the theft of the Mona Lisa in August 1911. After a brief stay at Athens, he returned to Paris, where from 1913 to 1923, he was director of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France).
