The French ministry of culture has announced that Catherine Pégard will remain in post as the director of the Palace of Versailles, extending her contract for another three years.
The French culture minister Audrey Azoulay says in a statement that Pégard has “cemented Versailles’s reputation both in France and across the world”. Priorities for Pégard during her next term include diversifying audiences and allowing schools more access to the 17th-century site, Azoulay adds.
Pégard, once an advisor to the former president Nicolas Sarkozy, was a surprise appointment to the post in 2011. She has continued with the contemporary art programme introduced by her predecessor Jean-Jacques Aillagon, who organised shows at the palace dedicated to Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. This summer, the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson transformed the royal residence with a series of dramatic installations including a waterfall in the Grand Canal (until 30 October).
Last year, an exhibition of works by the British sculptor Anish Kapoor proved controversial when his cavernous sculpture Dirty Corner was repeatedly vandalised. The piece, which was on show in the chateau garden, was defaced three times; earlier this week, Kapoor described the attacks as “an inside job”. The Palace of Versailles declined to comment.
In 2015, Versailles drew 7.4 million visitors. Writing in Le Figaro newspaper, Claire Bommelaer says that Pégard must “tackle issues around tourism; even if Japanese and US visitors are deserting France, the number of tourists visiting the 17th-century site is still extremely high”.
Conservation projects initiated under Pégard include the restoration of the marble tiers and features of the Latona fountain located on the chateau’s Royal Walk.