Head of the world's most-visited museum, Henri Loyrette, has announced that he will quit his post at the end of his term in April.

With visitors numbers nearly doubled during his tenure and expected to top 10 million in 2012, half of them under-30s, Loyrette leaves on a high note.

Loyrette, 60, oversaw the new wing for Islamic arts and a satellite museum in Lens. He is credited also with introducing contemporary art to the collection with acquistions by the likes of Cy Twombly, Anselm Kieffer and Francois Morellet.

He leaves before the controversial opening of a Louvre outpost in Abu Dhabi, the Gulf state that critics say has a dubious record on the treatment of dissidents and the immigrant workers who are constructing the museum. The Abu Dhabi satellite is set to open in 2015.