French diplomat to replace Jack Lang as head of Paris’s Arab World Institute

Paris’s Arab World Institute (Institut du monde arabe, IMA) appointed French diplomat Anne-Claire Legendre, 46, to replace Jack Lang as chair, making her the first woman to lead the institution since it was founded in 1987. The change follows Lang’s resignation after 13 years amid an investigation into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein; Lang’s name reportedly appears 673 times in the Epstein files. Police raided Lang’s office and apartment during his departure ceremony, and he denied wrongdoing, including any involvement in an offshore art-dealing company called Prytanee that Mediapart reported was set up in the Virgin Islands with his daughter Caroline and backed by a $1.4 million deposit. Epstein was convicted in 2008 and died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

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