Credits: Rog01 / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 2.0.
On February 17, 2026, the Arab World Institute (IMA), in Paris, chose Anne-Claire Legendre to succeed Jack Lang at the IMA, who had resigned. The board voted unanimously, on the government’s recommendation. The first woman to lead the institution, this career diplomat arrives at a time when the IMA is facing a crisis of trust, calling the IMA governance into question, against a backdrop of a financial investigation reported by the press. The executive branch is promising an IMA finances audit, a bylaws reform, and a clear objective: cleaning house.
A Tuesday Of Upheaval, On Mohammed V Square
On the banks of the Seine, the IMA is used to exhibition openings and big talk. This time, administrative buzzwords are making an appearance: “resignation,” “audit,” “ethics,” “sustainable trajectory.” The board meets in extraordinary session. It “takes note” of Jack Lang’s departure, then unanimously elects Anne-Claire Legendre.
The move is political. The IMA is not like other museums. It is a hybrid house: cultural, diplomatic, symbolic. Its presidency is not just an honorary role. It opens the door, sets the direction, and shapes the balance of power.
In that moment, power chooses a woman of substance. A diplomat trained in compromise, texts, and nuance. And above all, a figure signaling a change in style: after a long, highly personal presidency, the state wants method.
A Career Diplomat, From Yemen To The Élysée
Anne-Claire Legendre does not come out of nowhere. She comes from the heart of the state apparatus. Her career traces a continuous line: the Arab world, crises, public speech.
She began at the French Embassy in Yemen (2005-2006), then joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She focused on European consular cooperation. She also handled bilateral dossiers in which France often sought a balance between interests, memory, and the present.
From 2010 to 2013, she was at France’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in New York. There, diplomacy is down to the millimeter. Words are counted; commas carry weight. She notably followed Middle East dossiers at the Security Council.
She then joined Laurent Fabius’s office as advisor on North Africa and the Middle East. Then she returned to New York, this time as consul general (2016-2020). It is a role of welcome and protection, but also of influence: France holds its place there, its language, its presence.
In 2020, she became ambassador to Kuwait. In 2021, she took on 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 had been adviser on North Africa and the Middle East at the Élysée. In that capacity, she handled the most sensitive dossiers and the most watchful capitals. This very “Quai d’Orsay” profile changes the nature of the IMA presidency: less a platform, more a steering role.
The IMA, Cultural Showcase And Diplomatic Tool
The IMA was born from a state ambition in the late 1970s: to create, in France, a secular place dedicated to the cultures of the Arab world, capable of building bridges between societies, the arts, and knowledge. The building, inaugurated in 1987, quickly became a landmark in the Paris landscape.
Its façade, with its mashrabiya screens, is not just an achievement. It is a story: filtering light, playing with shadow, composing modernity from an ancient motif. Inside, the institution stacks up functions: exhibitions, a museum, a library, debates, Arabic language, performances.
But the IMA is also a diplomatic instrument. Its governance makes that clear: a board of 14 members, with equal representation, including French representatives and representatives of Arab states. Above it sits a High Council tied to the countries of the Arab League. This institutional architecture, designed to share the house, also makes it fragile: if political commitment wanes, finances and ambitions run out of steam.
Attendance underscores the scale of the challenge: the press reports about 750,000 visitors in 2023. The IMA is a popular gateway to heritage and creativity too often reduced to stereotypes.
Jack Lang: Thirteen Years Of Sparkle, Then The Fall
Jack Lang chaired the IMA for thirteen years. He gave the institution energy, visibility, and a sense of spectacle. He also embodied, sometimes all by himself, the relationship between culture and politics. At 86, he was still in the role, renewed several times.
On February 7, 2026, he announced his resignation, in an increasingly explosive context. The name Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who died in prison in 2019, emerged as the trigger for the crisis: revelations about past exchanges and connections fueled a media and political storm.
At the same time, several outlets reported an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office. It notably concerns suspicions of “aggravated tax fraud laundering.” They also report searches carried out on February 16, 2026 at the IMA headquarters and at the former president’s Paris home.
At this stage, these elements are part of ongoing investigations. They do not amount to a conviction. Jack Lang disputes them, and the case is now unfolding on two fronts: in court, and in the court of public opinion.
Audit, Bylaws, Ethics: The State’s Roadmap
In this transition, the government’s message is clear: things need to be cleaned up. The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs highlights Anne-Claire Legendre’s “experience.” It also emphasizes her “qualities” and “strategic vision.” The wording points to one goal: reestablish a presidency that inspires confidence.
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 bylaws is expected shortly. Among the publicly mentioned ideas is an age limit of 64 at the time of appointment. There is also talk of term limits, as well as the creation of an ethics and compensation committee. Finally, rules to prevent conflicts of interest would include disclosure requirements (interests, gifts).
Finally, the question of resources. The press notes that a subsidy of about €12.3 million from the state would represent a major share of the budget, while the financial contribution of partner states is regularly questioned in public debate. Here too, the new president inherits a political equation: keeping a Franco-Arab institution alive when the financial burden falls overwhelmingly on France.
In a phrase reported by several outlets, Anne-Claire Legendre says she wants to “restore calm.” She also wants to “restore public trust.” A promise of a better climate. And, between the lines, an admission of a fracture.
Governing A House Shaped By Influences
The IMA is a place where culture intersects with diplomacy. Every exhibition can become a signal. Every guest, a message. Every absence, a clue.
It is also a place where staff work for the long haul. A house is built on know-how, institutional memory, and habits. After a crisis, the hardest part is not changing the bylaws: it is stitching everyday life back together, restoring momentum, and reconciling the work and the leadership.
Anne-Claire Legendre’s challenge will be there: striking a balance between three expectations.
The first is the state’s: clear governance, controlled management, reduced reputational risk.
The second is that of the Arab partners: to be respected, heard, without the IMA becoming an offshoot of a single diplomacy.
The third is that of the public: to come to understand, feel, and learn, without being held hostage by the controversies of the moment.
Representation: A French Question, Without Caricature
With every IMA crisis, a question rises again, more or less explicitly: who is speaking, and for whom? The debate is sometimes harsh, often simplistic. It pits Paris against its outskirts, diplomacy against neighborhoods, the institution against lived experience.
And yet the IMA was never designed to assign identities. Its role is to shift the gaze, to make room for the arts, thought, languages, and plural histories.
Anne-Claire Legendre’s appointment, with her profile as an Arabic-speaking diplomat, does not resolve these tensions. Nor does her experience in public communication provide a solution to these problems. It reframes them. It can open another way of doing things: less personalization, more rules, less grandstanding, more evidence.
As long as the issue is not reduced to a matter of symbols. Representation matters. But, at the end of the hallway, it is the programs, the funding, access, and trust that decide.
A First Term Under The Microscope
The new president arrives just as the IMA moves toward its 40th anniversary (2027). At that age, an institution has to choose: commemorate, or reinvent itself. Here, the two overlap.
Anne-Claire Legendre is not expected to deliver a lyrical vision. She is expected to deliver actions: a clear audit, workable rules, cleaned-up operations, and a program that regains momentum.
In the halls, one phrase sums up the era: the IMA is no longer just expected to shine. It is expected to prove itself.
And that may be the real transition “after Lang”: not the end of a personality, but the start of a system in which culture, in order to remain free, will also have to learn to stand straight.