The president of the European and Mediterranean Civilisations’ Museum (MuCEM) in Marseille, Pierre-Olivier Costa, and his quantity two, the overall supervisor Véronique Haché, have been suspended from their positions. The transfer comes two months after a report understood to element rising discontent on the museum was submitted to the French tradition minister Catherine Pégard, and three months after accusations of sexual and ethical harassment have been introduced towards Costa—allegations he denies.
Pégard introduced Costa’s departure on 30 June, explaining her determination was based mostly on a want to “resume the social dialogue and restore a local weather of belief within the museum”. Anne-Marie Le Guével, from the Basic Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (IGAC), which offered the report, has taken over as MuCEM’s interim president. Le Guével arrived a day later in Marseille to announce to the employees that Haché was additionally suspended.
The information got here as a shock as Costa is a protégé of the French president Emmanuel Macron and his spouse Brigitte. Costa was Brigitte Macron’s chief of employees when he was employed by MuCEM in November 2022; earlier than that, he had been an advisor to Macron and served on a number of our bodies, together with the Paris metropolis council, the Centre Pompidou and the Centre nationwide du cinéma et de l’picture animée (CNC). Léonore Branche, a consultant of the main union Sud, advised The Artwork Newspaper that the information of Costa”s suspension “provoked cries of pleasure within the places of work”.
The six elected representatives of the MuCEM staffbase instantly “welcomed a choice” to droop Costa quite a few, citing a number of actions that had taken place since 2023, “together with a day of strike in June 2024 which was adopted by two-thirds of the employees denouncing poisonous administration [in an open letter]”. In March of this 12 months, IGAC started its audit of the museum.
Additionally in March, MuCEM registered a criticism by an worker, now on medical depart, who alleges he was sexually and morally harassed by the director. Costa’s lawyer, Marie Geoffroy, says that he denies any wrongdoing and has filed a criticism for “malicious accusation” towards the worker who made the sexual misconduct allegations.
The allegations have been forwarded to the native district lawyer’s workplace, who opened a preliminary felony investigation in March. Geoffrey says that Costa has no data of the felony investigation and has not been interviewed by police.
On 30 June, a neighborhood member of the French parliament, Hendrik Davi, pressed the district lawyer to “act swiftly, fearing that the matter may very well be hushed up because of the shut ties of the director with the presidential couple”.
In a press release, Costa denied his suspension is “in any means a sanction”. He additionally says that he “had no entry” to the report submitted to Pégard.
Formally, the suspensions are legitimate for a most of 4 months, leaving the pair time to arrange their defence, in accordance with a supply near Pégard.
Nevertheless, Branche says “that is purely symbolic, as there isn’t a means the employees would settle for [their] return”.
