Seven years older, Jean-Gabriel Mitterrand, a famous international gallery owner based in a private mansion in the Marais, remembers this brother who carried within him this mixture of the desire to do very big and to always remain modest.
Culture for everyone, towards culture for all, was his slogan at the Ministry of Culture.
“He did the job with passion.
He had a high idea of his role but not of himself.
And never compromised on the position that the ministry should adopt.
He was driven by a concern for the economy, as a good guardian of state funds despite requests, while helping sectors in difficulty, such as the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, which he adored.
»
As surprising as it may seem, Frédéric Mitterrand died without the slightest economy.
He had just finished, dictating the last chapter, at the end of his strength, of his book to be published soon by Laffont, the story of a great-uncle who died at the age of 25 in the war of 1914. Frédéric had traveled the Balkans to trying to find his grave, but in vain.
On the art side, Frédéric Mitterrand had great admiration for senior cultural officials and was very close to major museum bosses: Henri Loyrette, former president and director of the Louvre Museum, Laurence des Cars, who has held the same position since 2021, or Catherine Pgard, who has just left the Château de Versailles.
But in his protocol, Frédéric Mitterrand always managed to sneak away to smaller provincial museums, such as the Musée Napoléon in Ajaccio.
Read alsoDeath of Frédéric Mitterrand at 76: the two lives of a cultural dandy
His joy was to honor the artists, to give them decorations, to enter into communion with the talents.
Due to his position which gave him access to everything, he was able to satisfy his insatiable curiosity.
“He had an incisive, biting look at art but rather classical taste.
To emerging contemporary art, he preferred the moderns, Takis, Niki de Saint Phalle - who became his close friend - or the Lalanne couple, whom I introduced to him from their beginnings,
explains Jean-Gabriel.
Frédéric was honest, he never gave me a free pass even though I had the ears of the ministry, particularly for my Takis project at the Palais-Royal.
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Unlike many of his predecessors, he was very close to the French cultural fabric.
Didn't fail to go out into the field, visit the galleries, visit the biennials, such as that of contemporary art in Venice, in 2010, the same year as the Universal Exhibition in Shanghai, where he accompanied Jean-Gabriel.
“Romanesque”
On the private side, Frédéric Mitterrand had many friends in different circles but he compartmentalized.
“His character was as romantic as it was strict on a moral level, admitting neither the lies of politicians nor their errors.
He never failed to yell at them in his shows, which were very popular at the time.
Everyone was shaking
,” remembers Jean-Gabriel.
To define this blood brother who wrote a book about his devastating Covid, the latter will remember the emotional wounded by his childhood, a nanny who was undoubtedly too harsh, but whose intelligence dominated the fault.
“Paradoxically, he had this desire to be forgiven and a dominant desire to exist which made him show his ambitions
,” says Jean-Gabriel.
The latter remembers an evening at the Élysée for the screening of the film
Love Letters to Somalia,
released in 1982. To the question with a touch of irony from the president:
“Who is the author?”
"
, Frédéric replied with a mocking tone:
"It's me, my uncle.
»
Enough to annoy him, but without ever letting anything show.
The François Mitterrand side of Frédéric was to be just as mocking.