PARIS.- On the occasion of Olivier Gabet’s departure to join the Musée du Louvre as Director of the Decorative Arts department, Johannes Huth, president of the board of directors of Les Arts Décoratifs, and Sylvie Corréard, its chief executive officer, wish to acknowledge Mr Gabet’s achievements during his tenure as director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Musée Nissim de Camondo.

Mr. Gabet was appointed in 2013 by former board president Jean-Jacques Aillagon.

Over the course of nine years, under the successive chairmanships of Bruno Roger, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, and Johannes Huth, Olivier Gabet thoroughly transformed the two museums under his leadership. He oversaw a number of exhibitions reflecting the multidisciplinary scope of Les Arts Décoratifs, ranging from fashion to decorative arts, from non-Western arts to industrial design, from toys to graphic arts. Notable exhibitions staged under Mr. Gabet were devoted to Piero Fornasetti, Gio Ponti, Bauhaus, the Maharaja of Indore, and the Barbie doll. More recent exhibitions include Thierry Mugler, Couturissime, as well as Cartier et les Arts de l’Islam (“Cartier and Islamic Art”), Prisunic/ Monoprix, and À la rencontre du Petit Prince (“Encountering The Little Prince”). Mr. Gabet co-curated the retrospective Christian Dior couturier du rêve (“Christian Dior, Designer of Dreams”) in 2017 and Dix mille ans de luxe (“Ten Thousand Years of Luxury”), which opened at the Louvre Abu Dhabi before traveling to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. He invited artist and author Edmund de Waal to curate Lettres à Camondo (“Letters to Camondo”) at the Musée Nissim de Camando. He is the co-curator of the exhibition Shocking! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli (“Shocking! The surreal world of Elsa Schiaparelli”), opening July 6 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Mr. Gabet led a proactive policy to expand the museum’s collections, notably through the recent gift of a large body of works assembled by the late Claude and François- Xavier Lalanne. He restructured the museum’s objectives and teams, particularly in terms of conservation and restoration. Under Mr. Gabet’s leadership, the institution extensively renovated its permanent exhibition spaces with the support of major donors. The museum now boasts 23,681 ft2 / 2,200 m2 dedicated to displaying its modern and contemporary design and crafts collections, a project carried out by NormalStudio, and to its fashion galleries, which were redesigned by Studio Adrien Gardère and Bien Urbain architecture studio.

Johannes Huth, Sylvie Corréard, and the entire Board of Directors extend their heartfelt thanks to Olivier Gabet for the exceptional quality of his work at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. He has left his mark on the institution by emphasizing its guiding principle “to make useful things beautiful”. They also wish to congratulate Olivier Gabet on his appointment and wish him all the best in his new position.

Les Arts Décoratifs is a state-approved, private non-profit organization that includes the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and its library, the Musée Nissim de Camondo, the École Camondo and the Ateliers du Carrousel.