requirement), and for the departure of two general managers, both technocrats appointed by the ministry. Baldassari (whose title changed to president in 2010, when the Musée was granted more autonomy) involved herself in every aspect of the refurbishment. She helped to draw up architectural plans, oversaw building works, fundraised, curated the travelling exhibitions and cowrote catalogues. She worked around the clock, aided by a small team. “We owe the renovation of the Musée Picasso principally to her,” explains France’s leading contemporary artist Daniel Buren, who has known Baldassari for 30 years, and considers her to be one of 1.
the world’s top two or three Picasso specialists. “It is she who, through her own efforts, managed to raise the better part of the millions of euros necessary for this transformation.” Buren worked closely with Baldassari in 2008–09 when he created an installation, Daniel Buren: La Coupure at the museum. “To describe her as a workhorse is to state the blindingly obvious,” he says. “Consequently, she demands a lot from those who work with her.” To some, Baldassari’s workload got too big. “The fundamental problem was the excessive responsibility given to a single person,” says Olivier Widmaier Picasso, the artist’s grandson and a producer whose documentary Picasso: The Legacy is being aired and released on DVD to coincide 96 Baku.
with the museum’s reopening. “When the problems came, that there were delays and that everything from artworks to electricity to the alarm system to the windows had to be managed, the same person had to answer for everything.” By January 2014, months from the reopening, Baldassari’s position started to weaken. Libération published a couple of damaging articles, and in the spring, reports by workplace inspectors pointed to “a poor working climate inside the museum, bad personnel management, and Anne Baldassari’s authoritarianism,” according to Le Monde. In March, she gave journalists a hard-hat tour of the Musée, confrming the June reopening. By early May, however, word spread that the museum would not open in June after all. Board member Claude Picasso, the artist’s son, was enraged. “I have the impression that France is making a mockery of my father,” he protested in an interview with Le Figaro on 2 May. He then launched into an impassioned defence of the museum chief. “Like everyone else, Anne Baldassari has qualities and faws. She requires precision and speed, and doesn’t delegate very much,” said Picasso fls. “Yet Anne Baldassari has been fghting for 10 years to make sure that the reopening of the Musée Picasso, which is tripling in size, is a celebration to be shared with the whole world. She has done as she was told.” 2.
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Claude Picasso demanded a June reopening with Baldassari at the helm. Shortly after the interview, he was received by prime minister Manuel Valls, himself the son of a Spanish painter. Nevertheless, in a press release dated 4 May, the culture ministry delayed the reopening until September, saying 40 security agents were yet to be recruited, and a key technical wing was still unfnished. Baldassari kept her job. Within days, a group of museum employees put out a statement demanding her departure. According to Agence France-Presse, the group (who said they numbered 25 in all) listed grievances including “frequently modifed decisions, non-reply to emails and notes addressed to the president, authoritarianism, nonmanagement of problems, denial of reality.” (Most of the complaints, it was said, were from new staff members who were loyal to a departing director-general.) On 13 May the culture ministry announced that Baldassari’s mandate had been terminated by Filippetti. Citing inspection reports, the communiqué described “an extremely deteriorated professional climate, profound suffering on the job, and a stressful environment that is a danger to employees”. The statement added that “out of respect for the scholarly work conducted by Anne Baldassari,” the minister had asked her to rehang the collection.
FRANCOIS LOCHON/ ALAIN BENAINOUS/GAMMA/GETTY. SEBASTIEN CAILLEUX/SYGMA/ CORBIS. HEMIS/ALAMY. SIPA PRESS/REX. BÉATRICE HATALA/MUSÉE PICASSO PARIS.
TO DESCRIBE HER AS A WORKHORSE IS TO STATE THE BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS. CONSEQUENTLY SHE DEMANDS A LOT FROM THOSE WHO WORK WITH HER.
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