After a succession of commercial setbacks (Villa Kérylos, Maison Carrée de Nîmes, etc.) and legal setbacks concerning the two sites it operates in Les Baux-de-Provence, Culturespaces is starting to receive good news. Last June the Institute renewed its operating contract for the Jacquemart-André Museum and on October 24 the Council of State annulled the decision of the Marseille administrative court of appeal which had ended the execution in November 2022. of the public service delegation (DSP) allowing it to operate the Bringasses and Grands Fonds quarries. This decision was all the more hoped for, if not expected, as the end of the DSP was to occur in a few days, on November 1, 2023.
This procedure against Culturespaces was introduced by the company Cathédrale d’Images which had been replaced by Culturespaces in the exploitation of quarries in the form of immersive exhibitions. Cathédrale d’Images had cited an irregularity in the renewal of the DSP between the City and Culturespaces in 2012 to make this request.
The Council of State explains its decision by the fact that Cathédrale d’Images did not justify its interests being harmed in a sufficiently direct and certain manner by the continued execution of the DSP. The company was ordered to pay €3,000 to the commune of Baux-de-Provence and the same sum to Culturespaces.
However, this is not the end of the legal saga concerning the Carrières de Lumière. Criminal justice this time suspects an offense of favoritism in the renewal of the DSP: the 11th correctional chamber of Paris sentenced the former mayor of Les Baux to four months in prison, and Bruno Monnier, the director of Culturespaces, to six suspended month and 60,000 euros fine for concealment of favoritism. Both appealed.
