The play on words is too tempting and yet it is what characterizes the situation in Mad (” mad “ In English), the Decorative Arts Museum. The chairman of the board of directors, Johannes Huth announced his departure Tuesday, February 10, when he was elected in 2021 and the new statutes allow him to stay up to 2030. His predecessor Pierre-Alexis Dumas had remained 6 years. This departure comes when the director general Sylvie Corréard also announced her departure last December, which will take effect at the end of March.
Difficult not to make a link between these two resignations and the sidelining of Christine Macel. The curator of the Center Pompidou had been appointed to the management of the museums (decorative arts and Camondo) in October 2022 following Olivier Gabet whose mandate had not been renewed. At the time, everyone had praised this daring appointment. Christine Macel is a recognized figure in contemporary art, she thus ensured the artistic direction of the Venice Biennale in 2017.
But his managerial skills are not apparently at the level of his scientific skills. More and more of his collaborators complain to occupational medicine of his inappropriate behavior with them. To the point that occupational medicine is led to make in June 2024 a report, an important administrative act which engages the responsibility of the leaders of the Mad. The UNSA majority union is also arrested as indicated in the Journal des Arts Isabelle Waquet, UNSA union delegate: “The report by occupational medicine of suffering cases at work linked to the management of the ex-director of museums has uncovered the situation previously denounced by staff representatives”. The Directorate of the MAD then asks the cabinet full sense to conduct an investigation into the management of Christine Macel, which survey confirms the grievances of the report.
Then followed an showdown between Johannes Huth and Sylvie Corréard (Johannes Huth did not respond to our multiple maintenance requests). It is rumored that the first who had imposed on the second the recruitment of Christine Macel does not want to go well. A compromise is found and a transaction is signed: Christine Macel must leave her post as director of museums for that of scientific and artistic advisor to unless attributions, with the president. Christine Macel also prohibits speaking to the press, which explains that she did not respond to our requests. If the hundred agents of her ex-team is relieved by this departure, the agents do not understand why she benefits from such a favor, at least until October 2025 and the end of her layoff by her employer D ‘Origin, the Pompidou center. “Employees did not understand why the ex-director of museums was maintained within the decorative arts” notes Isabelle Waquet.
The curator of the Mad Bénédicte Gady succeeds him for a renewable mandate of 9 months, the time to find a new holder of the position. “The appointment of Bénédicte Gady, as acting museum director, helped appease the situation”comments the Unsa delegate. “The projects for 2025 around the centenary of Art Deco worn by Bénédicte Gady are exciting” underlines Sylvie Corréard at JDA. The same Sylvie Corréard whose UNSA says “That she gave her place to social dialogue”.
End of history? No, this is only the end of the first sequence. The showdown between Johannes Huth and Sylvie Corréard left traces and the latter announces last December that she will leave Mad in March. Relations between general management and the board of directors are special to MAD due to the history of the museum. MAD has the status of association with a board of directors and a more decision -making office than in national museums. It is the president of the Board who appoints the general manager but must have the agreement of the latter for the appointment of the director / director of museums who is his assistant. The state is not absent, however, the relations between him and Mad is governed by an agreement which was renewed for 10 years in 2022. Three representatives of the ministry sit in CA.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Culture has asked the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (IGAC) to look at the functioning of the MAD. The report is not public, but according to different sources, the inspectors formulate several recommendations relating to the functioning of the board of directors, to the need to have a scientific and cultural project (PSC) and to strengthen general management. Did Johannes Huth read a disavowal of his policy? Was there any pressures “Friendly” Influential members of the office and the turnover worried about the turn of events?
In addition to its particular status, MAD has a complex relationship with its ecosystem at the crossroads of fashion and patronage of large companies. Although having an operating subsidy of € 16 million (and € 1.20 million in investment, 2025 figures), MAD must find almost twice as much money to cover the operating charges of the two museums and school. And when attendance is not there as was the case in 2023, ticketing revenues fall generating a substantial deficit of almost 3 million euros.
Decorative arts must find each year between 3 and 5 M € in partnership and patronage in order to complete the programming budget. It is here that the board of directors plays its role. Hélène David-Weill, from a banker’s family, has long presided over CA. Pierre-Alexis Dumas is the artistic director of Hermès, Johannes Huth directs the European and African subsidiaries of KKR, an American investment company that manages hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. Jean-Jacques Aillagon only made 6 months to the presidency (unpaid) in 2013. “This house is singular, it has a particular story and it is therefore very endearing; It owes a lot to its large families of patrons which for some have been faithful to her for many years in France and across the Atlantic. It is exceptional and I know how attached the administrators to preserve this jewel ” wishes to underline Sylvie Corréard. It is here too that the management of museums plays an important role by maintaining relationships neat with patrons, which Christine Macel had apparently not taken the full measure.
The MAD management team is found today with mainly substitutes. Johannes Huth returned his apron and the presidency is provisionally ensured by the current vice-president, the businessman Jacques Bungert. Museums are directed by Bénédicte Gady and Sylvie Corréard will leave in a few days without designated successor.
Can this governance crisis shake a central institution in the national museum landscape? Several of our interlocutors told us about the solidity of the project and the collective. For Isabelle Waquet, “Employees are very attached to the institution”. Sylvie Corréard defends her assessment: “In six years, I helped put the institution in line with the considerable challenges of its very special economic model. The results are there and I have no doubt about the fact that the new phase that opens will still allow them to be amplified and made them grow: increased and diversified attendance, international development, major heritage projects ”. It is true that the two museums (the Nissim museum in Camondo has been closed since August 2024) recorded an attendance of nearly 800,000 visitors in 2024, the second best performance in its history, enough to restore the 2024 accounts. The celebration of the Centenary of Art Deco should consolidate these good results.
