-
- François-Frédéric Lemot (1771-1827)
Deux Renommées couronnant l’aigle impérial
(l’aigle a disparu sans doute à la Restauration)
Minerve distribuant des Couronnes aux différentes parties
d’étude de la Musique et de la Déclamation, 1811
Plâtre
Escalier du Conservatoire national d’art dramatique
Photo : Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
1/10/23 - Heritage - Paris - It’s a fight we’ve been waging for several years now, and to which we’ve devoted many articles. Thanks to the Minister for Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, who is at last keeping a promise made by Roselyne Bachelot but never honoured, the Conservatoire building, located in the rue of the same name, is finally going to be "classé" as a historic monument.
Let’s look at the facts in a nutshell. This building is made up of two parts: the theatre and the Conservatoire itself, formerly the Conservatoire de Musique since 1946, dedicated to training actors. The former was "classé" in 1921, while the latter enjoyed no protection whatsoever. The State, which wanted to sell it to create the Cité du théâtre on Boulevard Berthier, did not want to protect it as a historic monument, fearing that the constraints that would have weighed on it would have made it less attractive for sale.
Thanks to the efforts of the association of students and former students of the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique, backed by La Tribune de l’Art, the building was initially "inscrit" as a historic monument, although this protection was still insufficient. The Regional Commission on Historic Monuments, despite obvious pressure from the Prefect’s representative, had voted almost unanimously to have the building "classé" (see the news item of 4/7/19). This was never done.
At the budget conference (see article) the Minister for Culture announced that the Cité du théâtre had been abandoned, but that the Conservatoire would still be moving to buildings yet to be found, which we concluded meant that its sale was still on the agenda.
Fortunately, this is not the case, as we have just been told by the Ministry. It has assured us that this building on rue du Conservatoire "will be kept in addition to the premises that [the Conservatoire] will invest in in the Paris region".
What’s more, "the procedure for raising the building’s classification" has been "reactivated". This means that the building will soon be "classé" as a historic monument, as it is hard to see how the Commission nationale du patrimoine et de l’architecture could oppose the protection sought by both the Regional Commission and the Ministry.
Of course, it is debatable whether the outcome would have been the same if the building had been sold, and we must continue to fight to ensure that the State applies the same constraints to its own buildings as it does to others. The fact remains that this excellent news - which comes after others, such as the good budget devoted to heritage, or the stated policy of better protection of religious heritage - is to the credit of the current Minister, certainly supported by the President of the Republic’s heritage adviser, Philippe Bélaval, and of course by Stéphane Bern.
Let’s hope that these good resolutions continue, in particular through a classification procedure for the buildings (Roger-Henri Expert’s Art Deco building and the Pavillon des Sources) on the rue Gay-Lussac (see the news item of 20/9/23).