Serge Lasvignes, who for six years was president of the Centre Pompidou, has died. During his time at the French museum he oversaw its huge expansion and franchise operation, including the inauguration of Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum in Shanghai in 2019, the renewal of Centre Pompidou’s presence in Málaga for five years in 2020, and the KANAL-Centre Pompidou project in Brussels, set to open in 2026. Centre Pompidou Francilien, which will be a centre for conservation, conceived under Lasvignes’ watch, is also set to open next year.
In 2016, to mark the institution’s fortieth anniversary, Lasvignes designed what he called a ‘decentralised celebration’, featuring some 50 exhibitions and 15 dance and music performances across 40 partner institutions in France and its overseas territories.
A political operator, whose expansion plans were celebrated in the Élysée Palace for the soft power they brought, Lasvignes was born in 1954, and graduated from ENA in 1989. He was a qualified language and literature teacher but joined the Council of State, rising to Director of General and International Affairs and Cooperation with the Ministry of National Education, Higher Studies, Research and Professional Integration from 1995 to 1996, then Director of Legal Affairs with the Ministry of National Education, Higher Studies and Research from 1996 to 1997. He became State Councillor in 2005 and General Secretary of the Government from 2006 to 2015. His tenure at Pompidou started in 2015 through to 2021.
In 2021 he took over the National Commission for the Control of Intelligence Techniques, responsible for monitoring the scope of intelligence gathering techniques used by French spy agencies.
