The civilian promotion of the Legion of Honor on July 14, 2026 distinguishes 619 people. It has 518 appointments to the rank of knight and 101 promotions: 79 to the rank of officer, 16 to the rank of commander, four elevations to the dignity of grand officer and two to that of grand cross. The six decrees reveal more than fifty personalities linked to the arts, museums, heritage, architecture, crafts, the market and the teaching of these disciplines.
Historian Michelle Perrot is elevated to the dignity of the Grand Cross. The editor Marie-Claude Char and the choreographer Brigitte Lefèvre are elevated to the dignity of grand officer. The first co-founded Éditions des Busclats, today the Gallimard collection; the second directed the dance of the Paris National Opera from 1995 to 2014. Jacqueline Sanson, honorary general curator of libraries and former general director of the National Library of France, is promoted to the rank of commander.
The same rank goes to the mayor of Arles Patrick de Carolis. Journalist and former president of France Télévisions, he has been a member of the Academy of Fine Arts since 2010. He also directed the Paul Marmottan Foundation, which brings together the Marmottan Monet Museum and the Marmottan Library. He had been an officer since 2012.
The promotion reserves an important place for museum managers. Annick Lemoine, appointed in February to the presidency of the Orsay and Orangerie museums, and Christophe Leribault, who became president and director of the Louvre, are appointed to the rank of knight. They rub shoulders with Evelyne Van den Neste, general curator of heritage, Karen Taïeb, former deputy mayor of Paris in charge of heritage, and Thierry Webley, director of reception, surveillance and security at the Palace of Versailles. Also at the Ministry of the Armed Forces are Vincent Giraudier, historian and head of department of the Army Museum, Tristan Leroy, curator of the Resistance Museum in Brittany, and Cécile Renault, general director of the French Institute of Algeria.
Adrien Goetz
In the field of creation, visual artist Eva Jospin was named a knight, as was Paloma Picasso, fashion designer and administrator of the Picasso rights management company. Art history, archeology and monument conservation are also represented. Adrien Goetz is promoted to the rank of officer as art historian. Lecturer at the Sorbonne, member of the Academy of Fine Arts, and author of several works, he was for a time a columnist for The Eye. Nicolas Grimal, professor emeritus and permanent secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, reaches the same rank. The chief architect of historic monuments Alain-Charles Perrot is also promoted to officer. Archaeologist Luc Long is named knight by the citizens’ initiative.
The market and patronage appear in several contingents. Paul-Emmanuel Reiffers, founder of the Mazarine communications group and a fund supporting young contemporary creation, is promoted to officer.
