As of July 2025, Sophie-Justine Lieber (57) will succeed Sylvie Corréard as Director General of Decorative Arts. Conservative of libraries and state councilors, she has been directing the public establishment of the Park and the Grande Halle de la Villette since 2022. His career, started in state cultural services after a visit to the Banque de France and training at ENA, was built at the intersection of culture, law and high public service. Director of Cabinet of Roselyne Bachelot at the Ministry of Culture (2020-2022), she was also mediator of the book, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Louvre School, and chaired the CNC Art and Essay Commission.
This appointment comes in a context of instability within the institution. Since 2023, the Museum of Decorative Arts (MAD) has been shaken by a series of eddies. In less than eighteen months, the three strategic positions – chairmanship of the board of directors, general management and museum management – were vacant or active. At the origin of this crisis, the sidelining of Christine Macel, appointed director of museums in October 2022, then reassigned to a symbolic position in 2024, after a report of occupational medicine for work at work and an internal investigation confirming the managerial dysfunctions.
This episode provoked the resignation of Sylvie Corréard, director general since 2019, and Johannes Huth, chairman of the board of directors. Both had been involved in the process of appointing Christine Macel, the second supporting it while the first opposed it.
Despite honorable results in terms of attendance (nearly 800,000 visitors in 2024) and an ambitious heritage program around the centenary of Art Deco, the stability of the economic model remains fragile. In 2023, the deficit reached nearly 3 million euros, the MAD’s own resources being dependent on ticketing and private patronage revenues.
It is in this context that the double appointment of the wild Lionel as a result of the Board of Directors, in April 2025, then of Sophie-Justine Lieber in the General Management. The first, a Franco-American businessman and patron, is responsible for strengthening the international anchoring of the institution. The second will have to stabilize a weakened house, choose a museum or director, restore the cohesion of the teams and define a long -term strategic project, including the redefinition of the scientific and cultural project.
Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris
