[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mucem.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA scathing report by French government investigators accuses Pierre-Olivier Costa, the recently suspended president of Marseille\u2019s Mus\u00e9e des civilisations de l\u2019Europe et de la M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e (MuCEM), of sexual and moral harassment, breaching rules for granting public contracts, and putting the southern French city\u2019s only national museum \u201cat risk,\u201d according to a Le Monde<\/em> investigation. <\/p>\n \n\tA front-page scoop published Friday evening in France also reveals that Marseille\u2019s public prosecutor has expanded an ongoing criminal investigation into Costa\u2019s time as president of Marseille\u2019s top museum, notably amid allegations that he unlawfully used preferential treatment to award contracts and hire at the public institution. The museum\u2019s managing director, V\u00e9ronique Hach\u00e9, is also named in the report for related, alleged misconduct. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe much-anticipated investigation \u201cidentifies numerous breaches by the management \u2014 the president and the managing director \u2014\u00a0 of their ethical obligations, including remarks of a sexual, sexist, or degrading nature, inappropriate behavior by the president, intrusions into private life, suspicions of favoritism in hiring and salary policies, and disloyalty to the supervising authority [the Ministry of Culture],\u201d states the report by the government-operated l\u2019inspection g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des affaires culturelles <\/em>(IGAC) [General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs]. \u201cBeyond the sense of distress, it is the institution itself that is now at risk,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n \n\tIn late June, Costa and Hach\u00e9 were both suspended from their roles for a period of four months, following the IGAC\u2019s then-undisclosed report into allegations of workplace and sexual harassment. That news surprised many who knew Costa was close to France\u2019s first lady, Brigitte Macron, for whom he served as chief of staff before taking the Mucem leadership role in 2022. Costa is also a former advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, earlier signs of problems included a staff protest in June 2024 and an open letter signed by 79 Mucem staffers decrying a toxic workplace, including \u201crising pressure and threats.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe IGAC report states that in addition to one former Mucem worker who filed a formal complaint for sexual and moral harassment by Costa, government auditors discovered a second, allegedly similar case during their investigation.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the IGAC, the first unnamed former museum worker said Costa repeatedly made explicit propositions to him on the evening of August 8, 2025. Other employees said they witnessed Costa\u2019s \u201cinappropriate behavior\u201d toward the same worker. The second, former Mucem employee, said they experienced something similar, stating: Costa \u201cmade sexual propositions to me, like oral sex, it happened a thousand times \u2026 I pushed him away by making jokes about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCosta has denied all wrongdoing. \u201cI don\u2019t speak to people in that manner,\u201d he told government investigators. In April, he also told Le Monde<\/em> he had \u201cfull confidence\u201d in the ongoing judicial investigation by Marseille\u2019s judicial system. \u201cI want transparency and for everything to be brought to light \u2026 These are extremely serious accusations, and I dispute them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLastly, according to the report, Costa breached fair competition regulations by granting several contracts to individuals and\/or companies while also spending well beyond budgeted limits on at least two occasions. These include, but are not limited to, contracts granted at inflated costs to Bastien Baudoin, the head of the consultancy firm Tyrex Conseil, and the company Ludoparc, for the building of a children\u2019s playground. These represent \u201crisks of conflict of interest or criminal offenses,\u201d according to the IGAC report.<\/p>\n \n\tIn their explanation, the report describes \u201ca president regarded as untouchable as he is incompetent, and an inner circle that is likewise not very competent and failing in its role as a safeguard.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLastly, IGAC investigators recommended launching disciplinary proceedings against Costa and the general manager, Hach\u00e9.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/report-accuses-marseille-museum-president-of-sexual-harassment-and-putting-institution-at-risk-1234795542\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mucem.jpg?w=1024″] A scathing report by French government investigators accuses Pierre-Olivier Costa, the recently suspended president of Marseille\u2019s Mus\u00e9e des civilisations de l\u2019Europe et de la M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e (MuCEM), of sexual and moral harassment, breaching rules for granting public contracts, and putting the southern French city\u2019s only national museum \u201cat risk,\u201d according to a Le […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2107233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2107233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2107233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2107233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2107233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}