Claude Lévêque charged with rape and sexual assault of minors

Claude Lévêque, a 70-year-old artist from France, faces serious charges for sexually assaulting and raping multiple teenagers under 15. He represented France at the Venice Biennale back in 2009. The court has ordered him to stay in France and not to contact ten alleged victims. In 2021, Laurent Fallon accused Lévêque of assaulting him from ages 10 to 17 during the 1980s. Two brothers also reported abuse by him in the late 1990s when they were aged 13 to 17. While Lévêque has denied the claims, they fall outside the statute of limitations. His work, which included lighting up I. M. Pei's pyramid at the Louvre in 2014, has since faced backlash, leading to the suspension of his gallery representation and removal of installations in Geneva and Montreuil.