The Minister of Culture was saddened to learn of the passing of Christophe Vallet, who passed away at the age of 73.
A great servant of the State and bearer of a vision of Culture, Christophe Vallet has spent most of his career in the Ministry of Culture.
A graduate of Sciences-Po Paris, Christophe Vallet joined the Ministry of Culture in 1976, when he left the ENA (Guernica promotion). In January 1983, he took over as head of the sub-directorate of archaeology where he helped to structure the policy of archaeology, particularly in the premises of its preventive dimension, before becoming in the early 1990s sub-Director of Development and Training Delegation.
Administrative and financial director of the public establishment of the Bibliothèque nationale de France from 1994 to 1996, he joined the central administration of the Ministry of Culture as deputy director of heritage, in charge of the sub-directorate of historical monuments. In 1998, he was appointed head of department, deputy director of general administration, responsible for the financial and general affairs branch.
In April 2002, he took over the presidency of the National Monuments Centre, which he modernized thoroughly before being asked in 2008 by Christine Albanel, Minister of Culture, to prefigure the new general inspection of the ministry. On August 28, 2010, he was appointed, by decree of the President of the Republic and on the proposal of Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture, President of the Operator of Heritage and Real Estate Projects of Culture (Oppic), an operator he helped create and chairs until his retirement in July 2015.
Wherever he has served, Christophe Vallet has left his mark on his demanding and effective professionalism, his listening skills and his benevolence, embodying with conviction, throughout his career, the foundations of culture: «to gather and transmit».
The Minister of Culture sends her deepest condolences to his wife and children, to his loved ones and to his former colleagues.