France. Two years after the highly publicized announcement of the overhaul of its museum, it is on the sly, in a report from the Court of Auditors, that we learn that the Institute of the Arab World will finally be content to modernize the scenography in order to integrate the Lemand donation. This donation, supplemented by the arrival of Nathalie Bondil as director of the museum, gave wings to its president Jack Lang who wanted to completely modify the museum, bring it up to standard, open the patio and renovate the exhibition spaces. welcome. It was and still is amply justified as the report indicates in a ruthless and delicious description of the 2012 developments (read box). The low attendance (around 100,000 visitors, especially schoolchildren) does not help to improve the IMA’s finances, which are still in deficit and owe their salvation to the income from its reserve fund.
It was the economic situation of the IMA which sounded the death knell for the museum ambitions of its president. Originally, the cost of the entire project was 27 million euros. Taking advantage of his interpersonal skills, Jack Lang had obtained by force 6 million euros from a Ministry of Culture which especially does not want to hear about the IMA. Still missing 21 million euros. The magistrates then noted with dismay that the IMA was alone and in particular could not hope for any subsidy from Saudi Arabia, which preferred to give 60 million euros to the Pompidou Center than a third to a museum promoting Arab culture. The rich oil monarchies of the Gulf today favor their own museum of Arab or Islamic art to attract tourists. The magistrates estimate that the 6 million euros are more than sufficient to modernize the current scenography and transform an ethnographic museum without “Mona Lisa” into a museum of Arab fine arts thanks to the Lemand collection.
This is not the first time that the IMA has had to abandon an ambitious modernization project. In 2014, the establishment embarked on a vast extension program with the transformation of the car park into conference and training spaces and the construction of a new reception building on the square. But the project was abandoned in 2019 due to “ of feasibility questions not properly examined”. Which inspires this cruel remark to the magistrates: “By considering transformation projects without having the means to carry them out, the IMA risks discouraging its social body and its stakeholders. »
Other works – these mandatory – are starting to take shape: the IMA will have to remove its south and north facades to install thermal insulation in compliance with the tertiary decree (Elan law of 2018), which requires a closure of the site. Jack Lang and Claude Mollard, the de facto “number 2” of the IMA, will have succeeded in revitalizing an institution which was fading, which the report underlines several times. Their successors will have the difficult task of finding ways and means to perpetuate the site.
“This set, already open to criticism, has aged very badly”
“The museographic presentation (of Roberto) Ostinelli curiously turns its back on Jean Nouvel’s building, with corridors deprived of natural light, extensive use of velums deliberately obscuring the transparencies and skylights, blind baffles preventing the visitor from located in the space and ignoring the interior patio, while the magnificent views of Paris are conspicuously neglected. This ensemble, whose biases were immediately open to criticism, has also aged very badly in just ten years. The display cases, designed to rotate around, sometimes display objects on only one side. The exhibition spaces have practically no picture rails, which proves to be a serious handicap for showing paintings. The thematic route is difficult to understand (…). » Report from the Court of Auditors
