The current president of the Orsay and Orangerie museums, Christophe Leribault, was officially appointed head of the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday, replacing Catherine Pgard who had held this position since 2011, according to the report of the Council of ministers.
He will take up his new position from March 4, less than five months before the Paris Olympic Games, the equestrian events of which are to be held in this tourist hotspot.
Her appointment puts an end to an unprecedented procrastination of almost three years, Catherine Pgard, 69, having been appointed interim to her own succession by presidential decree in October 2022, when her third term was due to end and she had reached the age limit since March 2021.
Christophe Leribault, 60, took over as director of the Orsay Museum and the Orangerie Museum in October 2021, succeeding Laurence des Cars, appointed head of the Louvre Museum.
During his mandate, future major works and an ambitious rehanging of impressionist works were announced last June.
This art historian and general heritage curator, who spent his career in Paris, can boast of having brought the public back to Orsay in large numbers after the health crisis, thanks to several very successful exhibitions such as Edvard Munch in 2022 (724,414 visitors) and Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise, which has just ended with a historic record of 793,556 visitors.
Catherine Pgard, three-term president
A former political journalist, Catherine Pgard was appointed in 2011 by the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy to head the public establishment of the château, museum and national estate of Versailles, after having been his advisor in 2007. She served three terms under three different presidents, a record.
The temporary work she has been doing since 2022 is also unprecedented, even if the law did not prohibit it.
Under his presidency, more than 10,000 additional m2 of the Versailles estate were opened to the public or restored, such as the Latona basin, the gallery of the history of the castle, the apartments of Mesdames (the six daughters of Louis XV), the carriage gallery, the Royal Chapel, the Dauphin's apartments, and the Jeu de Paume room, an emblematic place of the French Revolution.
More recently, the castle opened Marie-Antoinette's private apartments to the public.