A year after his appointment as head of Mucem in Marseille, Emmanuel Macron’s former advisor, Pierre-Olivier Costa, sees his management called into question by some of the staff who accuse him on Friday in a letter of “putting harm the museum’s scientific project.
“Suffering at work”
“We have collectively noted old dysfunctions, but also very recent ones,” wrote representatives of the staff of the national museum in this long letter addressed to the former chief of staff of Brigitte Macron.
The missive, signed by representatives of the SUD-Solidaires union, was also sent to the Ministry of Culture. In November 2022, Pierre-Olivier Costa took over as director of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem) located at the end of the Old Port in Marseille.
Accusing him of not having “known how to understand the suffering at work” despite having been expressed on several occasions, staff representatives explain having carried out a “collection survey” among “all Mucem agents, civil servants and contract workers, from assistants to department heads”.
Among the dysfunctions highlighted, they deplore in particular “the undermining of the scientific project and the image of the Mucem” and say they regret “bitterly that scientific content and emotional content are systematically opposed, and that the richness brought to (their) establishment by the world of research and creation is considered elitist.”
They are also concerned about the reputation of the museum which “suffers from these dysfunctions”, referring to “the artists on whom unclear decisions are imposed, rehearsal schedules difficult to keep (…), the partners met by the advisors -service providers without the usual internal contacts. » The letter denounces in particular management “exercised outside the legal framework by two advisor-service providers” chosen by Pierre-Olivier Costa, management deemed “sometimes toxic”.
Staff representatives are also alarmed by a “lack of visibility” on the future of the Mucem: no exhibition project has been validated beyond spring 2025, explains the letter, “while good practice is to establish a three-year plan. Contacted, the director of Mucem was not immediately reachable.