Serge Lemoine appointed director of Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Serge Lemoine, former curator of the Musée de Grenoble and professor at the Sorbonne, has been appointed director of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Lemoine, known for his expertise in both 19th-century and contemporary art, aims to revitalize the institution, which he describes as having become a tourist mirror-box. He plans to improve lighting, rehang certain sections, and modify adjacencies without major closures, with changes expected by late 2002 and 2003. Lemoine intends to continue the multidisciplinary mission of the museum, including architecture and applied arts, and to open up to foreign schools, building on the work of his predecessor Henri Loyrette. He also plans monographic exhibitions on artists like Gérôme and Puvis de Chavannes, and a show on the origins of abstraction covering 1850-1914. Photography will gain a dedicated gallery, and contemporary artists will be invited to dialogue with the collections. Lemoine supports transforming the museum's status into a public institution to gain more autonomy.