Laurence des Cars is an anomaly in the male-dominated world of French museums. Since March 2017, she has been running the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, with its envied collection of French 19th-century masterpieces, and the Musée de l’Orangerie across the river, for which Claude Monet produced a celebrated series of water lilies.

Ms. des Cars was a strong contender for the job. To begin with, she was already partly doing it — leading the Orangerie as of 2014.

Before that, she had spent seven years in the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, helping set up the Louvre’s first international outpost there and exercising her skill at cultural diplomacy.

Finally, the Musée d’Orsay was emerging from a period of commotion. As Philippe Dagen, the art critic of Le Monde, wrote whenrecession from July 1990 to March 1991.

INDEX – The index is based on Americans' ratings of the economy, their personal finances and the buying climate. Ninety-three percent now say the national economy's in bad shape and 58 percent rate their own finances negatively, each matching its worst on record. Eighty percent call it a bad time to buy things, 2 points from its record.

Ratings of the buying climate hardly augur well for the holiday season. Nor did a separate ABC News poll two weeks ago in which a record-tying 51 percent planned to spend less this year, and 68 percent said they'd look for sales. The only bright spot: The retreat in gasoline prices, down for 11 weeks to $1.81, might free up some cash.

Among the index measures,