PARIS Henri Loyrette, the newly appointed director of world's largest museum, the Louvre, is something of a wonder boy in the world of fine art.

According to an AFP report, at 48, he is one of the youngest people to take up the prestigious post. He is also the youngest member of France's Academy of Fine Art.

Loyrette moves over after seven years as director of the Musee d'Orsay just across from the Louvre on the other side of the River Seine, with a string of successful exhibitions behind him.

His 1987-88 exhibition of work by French impressionist Edgar Degas pulled in 447,000 visitors.

Another, featuring the work of French caricaturist, painter and sculptor Honore Daumier attracted 200,000 people: "An unexpected success for an artist who suffered from his image as a caricaturist," said Leyrotte.

But nor is he afraid to go off the beaten track, he told AFP.

"I am curious about the things that we don't usually see. I realized that so far as the field of artistic creation is concerned, there are whole areas that are still unexplored. It is up to us to discover them."

To that aim, during his time at the Orsay he championed lesser known artists such as Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi, Eugene Jansson of Sweden, Poland's Jacek Malczewski and Mikalojus Ciurlionis from Lithuania.

This was only possible due to his close contacts with other European museums.

The rise and rise of Loyrette came by way of two years at Rome's Villa Medicis in the late 1970s, through to his 23 years at the Orsay, where by 1994 he had worked his way up to the top.

According to one colleague however, hard work played a significant role in his progress.

"He doesn't miss a thing. He notes it all down in his book. He is precise, meticulous, not to say fussy, but he is a friendly man."

"After 23 years at the Orsay, seven of which as director of a museum employing 700 people, the job at the Louvre should be comparable, even if it is at a different scale, since this museum has 2,000 staff."

Staffing levels however could be one of his main problems.

He arrives at the louvre just days after a four-day strike by employees cost it an estimated 245,000 euros (220,000 dollars) in lost revenue. Staff took action because of long-running grievances over under-staffing and working hours.

Outgoing director Pierre Rosenberg has acknowledged that the staff shortage means that the museum is only 80-percent open most days.

"We are still short of about 100 people for reception and surveillance and my successor will have to get freedom to manage staff at the museum, where exhibition space has doubled."

Despite these difficulties, the museum still manages to handle an average of 15,000 visitors a day.

Rosenberg steps down just a month before his 65th birthday after 40 years at the museum, seven of them in the top job.