The president of the National Library of France (BnF) is expected to leave her post on April 6. The identity of the person who will succeed him remains unknown.
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Laurence Engel, president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) since 2016, announced on Friday, March 15, in an email to her teams that she will leave the institution on April 6 after Elysium did not renew her mandate. “The President of the Republic, through the Minister of Culture, informed me on March 4 that he wants to give BnF a new president”stated Laurence Engel in a document reviewed by AFP on Friday evening and authenticated by BnF officials.
Through this change, the executive wants to give “a new exchange rate in a new budgetary situation”, specified Laurence Engel. The ministry did not comment, and the Elysée did not immediately respond. The name of the person who will succeed him has also not been revealed.
A woman at the head of BNF
The first woman to become the president of the largest cultural institution in France, Laurence Engel, emphasized the departure “with regrets”. She was appointed to this position in April 2016, under the presidency of François Hollande. In eight years, she successfully completed numerous projects, including the restoration of the historical site of the National Library of France, rue de Richelieu, which was inaugurated in 2022 after 12 years of work. A place where she opened the magnificent Oval Room, a reading room previously reserved for researchers, to the public free of charge, and set up a museum. “In order for BnF to take on its mission of accepting all audiences as widely as possible”Laurence Engel recalled in his e-mail.
It has also started work on a new location in Amiens, intended to house the BnF’s newspaper collections and due to open at the end of 2029. A former chief of staff to former culture minister Aurélie Filippetti, Laurence Engel was also a book broker and head of cultural affairs for the City of Paris .
This former student of ENS and ENA, master’s advisor at the Court of Auditors, was also the president of the board of directors of the National Institute of Art History and the president of the AFP financial commission.