This position was "the dream of his life", the president of the Musée d'Orsay, Sylvain Amic, died suddenly at the age of 58

"His passing is a shock," President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday on X. "In Montpellier, Rouen, and Paris, Sylvain Amic worked to ensure everyone had access to the wonders of art, from Soulages to Manet."

According to a source close to the case, Sylvain Amic "was in a small village near Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in the Gard department." He called the emergency services but ultimately died, the source added, referring to a "natural death."

"With his passing, culture has lost one of its greatest connoisseurs and France has lost a great servant of the State," lamented Culture Minister Rachida Dati on the same social network.

"Open-minded and creative, Sylvain Amic was a warm man who cared for others," she continued.

It was Ms. Dati who proposed the name of Sylvain Amic to Emmanuel Macron in the spring of 2024 for him to take the helm of the Public Establishment of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie.

Previously, he had been an advisor to another of Mr Macron's culture ministers, Rima Abdul Malak.

"I had spotted Sylvain Amic in Rouen, where he had done extraordinary work at the head of the city's 11 museums. He had agreed to leave everything to join my office, where he was a fantastic advisor. (...) Directing the Musée d'Orsay was his life's dream," she said in a statement sent to AFP.

At the helm of Orsay, Mr. Amic succeeded Christophe Leribault, appointed head of the Palace of Versailles.

Former teacher

"The Musée d'Orsay is a republican museum, a common good of the nation that must be returned to the entire nation," he declared to Le Monde last January, wanting in particular to "offer 18-25 year-olds an even more stimulating program."

He was also tasked with accentuating the decentralization of the Parisian museum by increasing the number of loans of works to museums, a pillar of the "rurality" policy dear to the minister.

Located along the Seine, the Musée d'Orsay has seen record attendance since the end of the health crisis, with 3.2 million visitors in 2022. Major works are planned to modernize its reception area.

Located near the Place de la Concorde, the Musée de l'Orangerie also houses Impressionist paintings, including Claude Monet's "Water Lilies."

Born in Dakar in 1967, general heritage curator, specialist in the modern and contemporary periods, Sylvain Amic began his career as a teacher before passing the competitive exam for the National Heritage Institute and embarking on a career as a curator in 1997.

He directed the Réunion des musées métropolitains de Rouen Normandie until summer 2022.

He had applied for the post of director of the Musée d'Orsay in 2017 but saw the position slip away from him in favor of Laurence des Cars, who then took over as head of the Louvre in 2021.

Sylvain Amic was also commissioned in 2018, along with heritage curator Olivia Voisin, by the then Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen, to set up a project to circulate works in the regions.