On February 17, 2026, the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris selected Anne-Claire Legendre to succeed Jack Lang at the IMA, who resigned. The board of directors voted unanimously, on the State’s proposal. The first woman to head the institution, this career diplomat arrives as the IMA faces a crisis of confidence, calling into question the arab world institute governance, against the backdrop of a financial investigation reported by the press. The executive promises an arab world institute audit, a statutory reform and a course: clean up.
A Pivotal Tuesday, On Place Mohammed-V
On the banks of the Seine, the IMA is used to openings and grand speeches. This time, administrative words are taking center stage: “resignation,” “audit,” “ethics,” “sustainable trajectory.” The board of directors meets in an extraordinary session. It “takes note” of the departure of Jack Lang), then unanimously elects Anne-Claire Legendre.
The move is political. The IMA is not a museum like the others. It is a hybrid house: cultural, diplomatic, symbolic. The presidency is not merely an honorary role. It holds the door, shapes the view, and influences the balances.
In the moment, the authorities choose a woman of dossiers. A diplomat trained in compromises, texts, and nuance. And, above all, a figure signaling a change of style: after a long, very embodied presidency, the State wants method.
A Career Diplomat, From Yemen To The Élysée
Anne-Claire Legendre does not come from nowhere. She comes from the heart of the state apparatus. Her career traces a continuous line: the arab world institute, crises, public speech.
She began at the French Embassy in Yemen (2005–2006), then joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She focused on European consular cooperation. She also handled bilateral files where France often seeks a balance between interests, memory, and the present.
From 2010 to 2013, she served at France’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York. There, diplomacy is practiced by the millimeter. Words are counted, commas carry weight. She notably followed Middle East files at the Security Council.
She then joined Laurent Fabius’s office as adviser for North Africa and the Middle East. She returned to New York as Consul General (2016–2020). A role of welcome and protection, but also of influence: France there maintains its rank, its language, its presence.
In 2020, she became ambassador to Kuwait. In 2021, she took a high-profile post: spokesperson and director of communications at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The job is to speak accurately, quickly, without burning bridges.
Since December 2023, she served as North Africa and Middle East adviser at the Élysée. In that role, she dealt with the most sensitive files and the most attentive capitals. This very “Quai d’Orsay” profile changes the nature of the IMA presidency: less platform, more governance.
The IMA, Cultural Showcase And Diplomatic Tool
The IMA was born of a State ambition in the late 1970s: to create in France a secular place dedicated to the cultures of the arab world institute, able to bridge societies, arts, and knowledge. The building, inaugurated in 1987, quickly became a landmark in the Parisian landscape.
The façade, with its mashrabiya, is not only an engineering feat. It tells a story: filtering light, playing with shadow, composing modernity from an ancient motif. Inside, the institution stacks functions: exhibitions, museum, library, debates, Arabic language, performances.
But the IMA is also a diplomatic instrument. Its governance reflects this: a board of directors of 14 members, equally split, with French representatives and representatives of Arab states. Above that, a High Council linked to the countries of the Arab League. This institutional architecture, designed to share the house, also makes it fragile: if political engagement wanes, finances and ambitions flag.
Attendance underscores the stakes: the press cites about 750,000 visitors in 2023. The IMA is a popular gateway to heritage and creations too often reduced to clichés.
Jack Lang: Thirteen Years Of Brio, Then The Fall
Jack Lang chaired the IMA for thirteen years. He gave the institution energy, visibility, and a sense of spectacle. He also personified, at times single-handedly, the relationship between culture and politics. At 86, he still held the position, renewed several times.
On February 7, 2026, he announced his resignation amid an explosive context. The name Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who died in prison in 2019, emerged as a trigger of the crisis: revelations about past exchanges and ties fueled a media and political storm.
At the same time, several outlets report an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office. It concerns, among other things, suspicions of “aggravated tax fraud laundering.” They also report searches conducted on February 16, 2026 at the IMA’s headquarters and at the former president’s Paris home.
At this stage, these elements concern ongoing investigations. They do not equal conviction. Jack Lang contests the allegations, and the case now plays out on two stages: that of justice, and that of public opinion.
Audit, Statutes, Ethics: The State’s Roadmap
In this transition, the government’s message is clear: it must clean up. The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs highlights Anne-Claire Legendre’s “experience.” It also praises her “qualities” and “strategic vision.” The vocabulary aims at one objective: reinstall a presidency that reassures.
Several projects are on the table.
First, an inspection mission and an audit covering finances and human resources. The idea is simple: look, measure, document. Then decide.
Next, a reform of the IMA’s statutes announced in the near term. Among publicly discussed options is an age limit of 64 at appointment. Also under consideration are term limits, the creation of an ethics and remuneration committee, and rules to prevent conflicts of interest that would include disclosure obligations (interests, gifts).
Finally, the question of funding. The press notes that a subsidy of around €12.3M paid by the State would represent a major share of the budget, while the financial contribution of partner states is regularly questioned in public debate. Again, the president faces a political equation: keeping a Franco-Arab institution alive when the financial effort rests largely on France.
Anne-Claire Legendre, in a phrase reported by several media outlets, expresses her wish to “bring back calm.” She also wants to “restore public confidence.” A promise of atmosphere. And, implicitly, an admission of a fracture.
Governing A House Traversed By Influences
The IMA is a place where culture crosses diplomacies. Every exhibition can become a signal. Every guest, a message. Every absence, a clue.
It is also a place where teams work over the long term. A house is built on expertise, internal memory, and habits. After a crisis, the hardest part is not changing statutes: it’s stitching daily life back together, restoring momentum, reconciling the professions and management.
Anne-Claire Legendre’s challenge will be there: to balance three expectations.
The first is the State’s: a “legible” governance, controlled management, and reduced reputational risk.
The second is the Arab partners’: to be respected and heard, without the IMA becoming an annex of a single diplomacy.
The third is the public’s: to come to understand, be moved, learn, without being held hostage by current controversies.
Representation: A French Question, Without Caricature
With every IMA crisis, a question resurfaces, more or less explicitly: who speaks, and for whom? The debate is sometimes brutal, often reductive. It pits Paris against its peripheries, diplomacy against neighborhoods, the institution against lived experience.
Yet the IMA was never designed to assign identities. Its role is to shift perspectives, to make room for arts, thought, languages, and plural histories.
The appointment of Anne-Claire Legendre, with her Arabist diplomatic profile, does not resolve these tensions. Nor does her experience in public speech offer a ready-made solution. She reconfigures them. She can open another way of doing things: less personalization, more rules, fewer proclamations, more evidence.
Provided the issue is not reduced to symbolic matters. Representation matters. But, down the hall, programs, resources, access, and trust decide.
A Start Of Term Under A Microscope
The new president arrives as the IMA approaches its 40th anniversary (2027). At that age, an institution must choose: commemorate, or reinvent. Here, the two merge.
Anne-Claire Legendre is not expected to offer a lyrical vision. She is expected to act: a clear audit, enforceable rules, a cleaned-up operation, and programming that regains momentum.
In the corridors, a phrase sums up the time: the IMA is no longer only asked to shine. It is asked to prove itself.
And perhaps that is the real transition “after Lang”: not the end of a personality, but the start of a regime where culture, to remain free, will also have to learn to stand straight.