After several months of reflection, it is finally Christophe Leribault, current director of the Petit Palais, in Paris, who will take over the presidency of the establishment of the Orsay and Orangerie museums.
Besides Leribault, two other candidates were in the running: Olivier Gabet, director of the Museum of Decorative Arts, and Sylvie Patry, number two in Orsay.
The new president's project for a house and a period, the nineteenth century, which he knows well, has obviously won the presidential support.
"
He has an exemplary career,
" explains Emmanuel Macron's entourage in Le Monde, who announced this appointment.
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Orsay needs exceptional support from the State
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Despite his youthful air, which makes him ten years younger than his 58, this son of engineers has a long career as a curator and great art historian behind him.
His monograph of Jean-François de Troy, 18th century French painter, in 2002, seems the fruit of a lifetime of scholarly research - yet it was his first book.
Talent scout
After studying history and a classical course at the Louvre and the Sorbonne, he made a short stint at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, before entering as curator at the Carnavalet museum, devoted to the history of Paris. .
He stayed there for nearly 17 years, organizing exhibitions and enriching the collections in an original spirit.
A great lover of drawings, he will notably introduce Plantu's caricatures and the forgotten work of Lucien Jonas.
He then entered the Louvre, where he was divided between the post of deputy director of the Department of Graphic Arts and that of director of the Delacroix museum.
This is where the city of Paris offers him, in 2012, the position that will put him at the center of the game, that of director of the Petit Palais.
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On his arrival, the museum, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, is one of the capital's most forgotten ones. No matter: Curious about everything, discoverer of talents, the director will then pursue an ambitious and innovative policy for his exhibitions. He plays the safe values, launching “
Paris 1900
”, which attracts more than 200,000 visitors, in 2014. Or an exhibition on the lowlands of the Baroque in Rome, which gives a blow to the Caravagesques. But he also bet on the interest in the Danish painters Zorn and Hammershoi, which he introduced to France. Of these Nordic artists, whose work is presented with original scenographies, he knows how to make “
blockbusters
”, the only valid passport in this small museum world.
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A good traveler, preferring old Scottish or German castles to beaches, he is one of those rare curators to walk around Drouot, the flea market and contemporary art galleries.
His childhood curiosity extends to contemporary art, and he defends artists like Jean-Michel Othoniel, with whom he was a resident at the Villa Medici.
Its eclecticism attracts patrons and donors, including Jean-Marie Rouart, who has just donated works by artists from his family to the museum.
Monday September 14, two hours before learning of his victory, Christophe Leribault also organized a meeting between the public and the academician.
All this work ended up paying off: before the health crisis, the Petit Palais received 1.2 million visitors, multiplied the evenings, for young and old alike. The echo of this bubbling of the Petit Palais has visibly crossed the Champs Élysées to reach the office of Emmanuel Macron.