Leading the Musée d'Orsay was the dream of his life. Since taking charge in April 2024, Sylvain Amic had launched countless projects to open the renowned institution to audiences who felt distant, excluded, indifferent or disenchanted. "The Musée d'Orsay is a republican museum, a national asset that must be restored to the nation as a whole," he told Le Monde in January, stressing that "an open museum is a museum that does things with civil society." That mission statement was cut short. Amic died suddenly of a heart attack on Sunday, August 31, at the age of 58, in southern France, leaving the teams at Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie devastated and his peers stunned.

His predecessor, Christophe Leribault, described the news as a "shock" on Instagram. Now head of the Château de Versailles, Leribault praised Amic, who he described as "an engaged, dynamic and warm personality." French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who appointed him to his post, paid tribute to "an open and creative mind." Former culture minister Rima Abdul Malak, with whom he was very close, remembered "a man devoted to public service, for whom the mission always came before personal ambition."

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