It is with deep emotion and sadness that FRAME has learned of the untimely death of Sylvain Amic, President of the Etablissement Public du Musée d’Orsay et du Musée de l’Orangerie – Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, on August 31, 2025, at the age of 58.
Internationally known and recognized in the museum world, Sylvain Amic had been one of FRAME’s greatest ambassadors for almost 25 years and he was very open to transnational cultural dialogue.
25 YEARS OF COOPERATION…
When Sylvain Amic joined the Musée Fabre in Montpellier in 2000 as curator in charge of the 19th century, modern and contemporary art collections, he discovered FRAME, which had been founded the previous year. A few years later, he threw himself wholeheartedly into the project of creating the very first website for this young bilateral network, in order to provide it with “a permanent showcase”, in his own words, reporting on its activities and maintaining links between members.
A decade later, Sylvain Amic continues his journey with FRAME, when he came to Rouen in 2011 to lead three museums of the Normandy city. Under his leadership, the eleven museums of the “Rouen Normandie” metropolitan area then joined the network. Deeply convinced by the societal role of museums and their involvement in the work of remembrance, he then initiated several transatlantic projects that paved the way for collaborations between history, society and fine arts museums within the FRAME network. The digital exhibition Ports of Exile, Home Harbours (2020-2021), dedicated to Jewish fates in World War II, brings together and highlights, on a single platform, often unpublished documents, objects and works of art, mainly from the collections of the FRAME network.
Sylvain Amic repeated the experience with the virtual exhibition Enslavement and Abolitions, Memories and Transatlantic Heritages, before leaving Rouen in the summer of 2022, and the FRAME network at the same time, to become Advisor in charge of Museums, Arts and Crafts, Design and Fashion to Rima Abdul Malak, then Minister of Culture.
“The moments spent under the auspices of FRAME have accompanied my entire career and have given me a great deal,” he pointed out to the FRAME Board of Directors, whose he was a member since 2014. His regular presence at meetings and gatherings have made him a key pillar of the network. Sylvain Amic also played a key role in drawing up FRAME’s strategic plan. As a result, his appointment as head of the d’Orsay and the musée de l’Orangerie in April 2024 was unanimously celebrated by the network. At the time, Sylvain Amic was delighted “to be back within the FRAME network, in which [he had] cooperated since its creation 25 years ago.”
Sylvain Amic immediately had several ideas for cooperation with FRAME. He saw “an opportunity for the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie to increase program exchanges and to share practices with major French museums outside Paris and important North American museum institutions.”
… AND FRANCO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP
The emotional shock of Sylvain Amic’s death is reverberating in all of us today. His vision of an accessible culture, focused on transmission and dialogue between museums and the public, on a local, national and international scale, made him a key player of our time.
In addition to his great culture and professional commitment, all those who had the chance to work with him directly or indirectly remember him as a dynamic and generous person, positive in all circumstances, who knew how to recognize skills and give people a chance.
The FRAME family, and the national and international museum community, has lost an eminently affable personality, sincere in his commitments, and a true friend.
The Co-Presidents of FRAME – William Beekman, and Christelle Creff, Head of the Service des Musées de France (Ministry of Culture) -, the members of the Board and the entire FRAME network present their most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Sylvain Amic, and more particularly: Florence Hudowicz, his wife and our colleague Chief Curator of Graphic and Decorative Arts at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, and their children, and also the museum teams who worked alongside him.
To read French version, please click here.
