The Center for National Monuments (CMN) has appointed Gautier Verbeke administrator of the Palais du Tau and the towers of Reims Cathedral, as well as the Château de Haroué, in Meurthe-et-Moselle. He will take office in September 2026 and will succeed Jocelyn Bouraly, in office since January 2022.
Director of mediation and audience development at the Louvre Museum since July 2023, Gautier Verbeke (51) is a senior conservation officer and holds a DEA in art history. He was first a guide-lecturer at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, before working at Fnac. Passed in the curatorial officer competition, he joined the Louvre-Lens in 2014 as a mediator, then became director of mediation in 2016.
At the Louvre-Lens, he participates in a policy centered on the involvement of residents, the accessibility of content and the development of audiences unfamiliar with cultural institutions. He leaves the establishment in 2023 after more than nine years to join the Louvre. Its management, which then had 60 agents, covers mediation, artistic and cultural education, attendance studies, as well as audience retention and development. He was also co-curator of “Underworlds.” 20,000 places under the earth”, presented at the Louvre-Lens in 2024.
The Palais du Tau and Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral.
© David Bordes / CMN
His appointment comes in the last phase of the construction site of the Palais du Tau, closed since 2022 and whose reopening is announced for 2027. The former archbishop’s palace must become the Museum of Coronations, with a permanent exhibition dedicated to the thirty-three sovereigns crowned in Reims, from Pepin the Short to Charles museography must combine collections, audiovisual devices, tactile tools and contemporary orders. The CMN targets around 200,000 visitors per year.
Gautier Verbeke will also have to ensure the operation of the towers of the cathedral and the castle of Haroué, an 18th century building administered by the CMN. He indicated that he wanted to make these three sites “accessible, hospitable and lively” places and develop local, national and international partnerships. Preparing for the reopening of the Tau Palace and reconstituting its audiences will constitute the main file for his taking office.
