Like the musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac or the Centre Pompidou , the musée d'Orsay and the musée de l'Orangerie are also named after former French President: Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
The Ministry of Culture announced the news this Monday March 28, in a press release. Roselyne Bachelot explains she wanted to pay tribute to the former president and his commitment for preserving the former railway station and transformation into a museum with a global influence. “This heritage-based and architectural gesture was of a great audacity, mixing preservation of a historic monument and its transformation into a museum”, the Minister of Culture adds.
As a matter of fact, it is in 1977, encouraged by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, that the monumental place has been turned into a museum devoted to the arts from the 19th century. It is for this very reason that when the death of the former president has been announced this December 2, 2020, several propositions were already in the pipes to name the museum after the president.
The Minister of Culture also says this decision “has been made in partnership with museum president Laurence de Cars and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s family”.
Even though official, this change of name is yet not effective. To be so, the Council of State still has to release a decree. And from this moment on, we will be able to talk about the “public institution of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie – Valéry Giscard d’Estaing”.
