Versailles and the prince facts

Palace of Versailles

Photo: Didier Rykner

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Such information was disclosed by letter A on 21 December: having been retained as President of Versailles (see our article) without any legal basis, Catherine Pgard may be appointed once again to this office thanks to a decision that will lift all restrictions: legal age is postponed to 70 years, there is no limit to the number of consecutive mandates and the possibility of completing mandates, even if the legal age is exceeded. Hence, in total, for what could be called a “Special Pegard” decision.

We have no knowledge of the exact contents of this decree other than what Letter A says about it, but we can verify that it existed and that it was actually submitted to the Council of State prior to its immediate submission to the Council. from the Minister. We do have to move fast: if we can, at the limit, consider that the age limit will not apply to Catherine Pégard who is not a civil servant but a contract (even if this interpretation is highly debatable, s (as a public official), the end of her term, however , is October 2022. So if last year’s budget can go ahead, the 2023 pledge can only be signed by a president who actually and officially has this title.

But the letter A underscores the fragility of the decree. It reveals that the Council of State will warn the government against the risks ” abuse of power », « in the absence of reasons of public interest of sufficient character “. Every legal or natural person has acting interest can take this case to court. Therefore, it can be an association (people think about unions), or a potential candidate, meaning that almost anyone since Catherine Pégard’s appointment has shown that anyone can claim this position.

If this decree is clearly designed for Catherine Pgard, it is clear that it will also allow Emmanuel Macron to implement prescriptions for all appointments, which he is sure to not displease. Anyway, why not, when we do, the appointment of a lifetime?

Although it must be admitted that certain appointments at the heads of public institutions (Louvre, Orsay, Center Pompidou, etc.) have been made according to the rules, and by appointing the candidate withholding, the excesses which we see elsewhere, and especially at Versailles, are not worthy of a Republic. copy “. And they are even more in favor of the gradual disappearance of the Ministry of Culture which makes one wonder even more what the incumbent is for.

Frédéric Martel, on French Culture, has nothing more to say. If one inevitably disagrees with Versailles’s vision on this one, his description of the current interim way of arriving in his post – we don’t know all the details of the story – is fascinating , as are the “morals” he takes from it and we quote here Word by word :” a prostitute had Jean-Jacques Aillagon expelled from Versailles, when his record was good, to replace him on the pretext of his age limit. Today we are using the opposite rule to try to re-elect a president with a more than mixed record and who is overage. There is an expression for this: the fact of the prince. »

In conclusion, let’s remember why, aside from the irresistible intrigue surrounding his appointment, we believe that Catherine Pgard did not succeed him as President of Versailles. The following are some of the articles published on Art Tribune :

the appointment of Jacques Moulin as chief architect of historical monuments for the park (brief 14/9/12), and more generally the retention at Versailles of his colleague Frédéric Didier;

the Ahae exhibition at Versailles (see article);

delivery from Apollo baths in Abu Dhabi and Versailles (see this article, and this one); and the Arras exhibition (see this article);

the treatment done in the garden for the Kapoor exhibition (see article and this one);

demolition of the old Versailles wing (see this article and this one); Admittedly, this project had been decided before Catherine Pegard’s arrival at Versailles, but she did take responsibility for its implementation and did absolutely nothing to change it or cancel it, which is one of the biggest property scandals in France in recent years. ;

the disastrous “recovery” of the fountain (see this article);

the fake chair affair (see this article); Admittedly, Catherine Pgard is not a curator or art historian, or competent in any field of history (and this is certainly one of her problems), but the affair took place under her mandate;

the ludicrous affair of the “bed of Louis XVI” (see news 9/1/17);

It is true that from 2017 we have devoted fewer articles to the Versailles debacle, due to exhaustion and overwhelming numbers, to focus mainly on the positive points at hand, it would be dishonest not to recognize them. Catherine Pgard, at least, let the curators work, which explains why so many of them appreciate her. Thanks to this, exhibition policies are generally of very good standards, and acquisitions are largely relevant (excluding the counterfeiting business, of course, which took place under his presidency, prior to the arrival of the new storage director).

But we couldn’t stand going to Versailles any longer, which had largely become a pseudo-empire. We only mention (here or there), because we sometimes get the impression of preaching in the desert, the installation of air conditioning in the castle wing, and we don’t talk at all, because this is beyond our reach, Carlos Ghosn’s wedding (see for example the article this) or the more recent vegetable garden scandal… It is at this last point that we refer to this article as Release which partly explains why Emmanuel Macron was at home in Versailles under Catherine Pégard, which is therefore enough to justify the extension of his mandate… The last article we published on the excesses of Versailles was dated March 7, 2021, but we hope on this date for a change in policy thanks to a change in president . We know what happened to him…

Had the successive mandates of Catherine Pgard been truly virtuous, she could no longer be renamed in this position. Those are the rules, that’s how we recognize a functioning democracy. Obviously, this is no longer the case for France (and unfortunately it’s nothing new).