An eclectic personality with a passion for serving culture, he had directly contributed to the creation of several French museums and accompanied all major developments in the sector since the late 1960s. Mr. Germain VIATTE, general curator of heritage and art historian, passed away on May 4, 2024, at the age of 84.
Since his studies at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre, Mr. Germain VIATTE had been interested in 20th century art. In 1970, he had participated in the creation of the Centre national d'art contemporain and had been part of the adventure of the Centre Pompidou since 1973, as director of contemporary documentation and then as a curator at the Musée national d'art moderne with Pontus Hulten.
Since then, he had never ceased to be directly involved in the development and influence of French museums. Director of the museums of Marseille from 1985, it was he who created the museum of African, Oceanian and Amerindian arts of the Vieille-Charité. At the Ministry of Culture, at the head of the General Inspectorate of Museums of France in 1989, he launched a major research mission on the resources and collections of African and Oceanian art preserved in museums in the regions, before becoming director of the Centre Pompidou from 1992 to 1997.
He was then a major player in the prefiguration of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in the late 1990s by leading the museological project of the future museum. He had made the first acquisitions of the museum, in which expressed a new vision of the extra-European arts that was particularly close to his heart.
A prominent figure in the world of museums, Mr. Germain VIATTE was the curator of numerous exhibitions and the author of renowned works. His great intellectual curiosity and his warm and accessible character had inspired and accompanied generations of curators and museum professionals.
I extend my condolences to his family and loved ones.
Rachida DATI,
Minister of Culture