The French Foreign Ministry has asked the Arab World Institute's board of directors to meet within a week to appoint an interim president after the resignation of former culture minister Jack Lang because of his past association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot "took note" of Mr Lang's resignation on Saturday, ministry sources said, and "has launched the procedure to appoint his successor as head of the Arab World Institute".
Mr Lang said allegations against him had no basis in fact.
"The minister has asked that the board of directors of the Arab World Institute be convened within seven days to appoint an interim president," the ministry sources said.
Best known for his career as culture minister in the late 1980s, Mr Lang, 86, was appointed as president of the Arab World Institute in 2013. His three-year mandate was renewed four times and was scheduled to end in December. He has been described as a hyperactive president and has developed warm French ties with leaders in Arab countries.
But Mr Lang was forced to resign, giving in to public pressure after France's national financial prosecutor's office, the institution responsible for fighting tax fraud, said it had opened a preliminary investigation into his alleged financial links to Epstein.
Files released on January 30 by the US Department of Justice showed Epstein and Mr Lang corresponding intermittently between 2012 and 2019, when the financier died by suicide in prison. They had discussed a property transaction in Morocco. Mr Lang's daughter, Caroline, who was also in touch with Epstein, has also resigned from her position as head of a film producers' union.
"The accusations against me are unfounded and I will demonstrate this, beyond the noise and fury of the media and digital courts," Mr Lang said on Saturday on X. He has argued that he had been "naive" about Epstein.
The Arab World Institute is a private institute that hosts the biggest collection of contemporary and modern Arab art in the western world. Its president is appointed by the French President but must be ratified by a vote of the board of directors, which includes seven senior French officials from the Foreign Ministry and seven Arab ambassadors.
The file dump has heightened scrutiny of Epstein's connections with public figures, including Britain's Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor - the younger brother of King Charles III - Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the US, and Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
