Jack Lang, France's former culture minister, resigned as president of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) on February 7 following revelations in the Epstein files that his name appeared 673 times. Lang, 86, denies any wrongdoing, acknowledging a long "cordial relationship" with Jeffrey Epstein but claiming ignorance of his sex crimes. The Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation into Lang and his daughter Caroline for "laundering of aggravated tax fraud," and Lang stepped down after being summoned by the French foreign ministry at the request of President Macron and Prime Minister Lecornu.
This resignation marks the highest-profile French figure to be implicated in the Epstein scandal, highlighting the ongoing fallout from the financier's network across international cultural and political circles. Lang's departure from the IMA, an institution he helped inaugurate in 1987 and led since 2013, raises questions about governance and accountability in major cultural institutions, especially given his storied legacy as a transformative culture minister who modernized the Louvre and championed contemporary art in France.