Jack Lang, one of France’s best-known culture ministers of the last 40 years, resigned as president of the Arab World Institute in Paris on Saturday, following mounting pressure for him to step down after he appeared in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Lang and his daughter Caroline Lang, a former longtime Warner Bros. France exec, are among hundreds of people of influence shown as having ties with the convicted sex offender in millions of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on January 30.
Their mentions in no way imply that they were connected to, or even aware of, Epstein’s criminal activities, and both have denied any wrongdoing.
Jack Lang served as France’s Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993 under President François Mitterrand.
He is seen as emblematic of the socialist era ushered in by Mitterrand’s election in 1981, after more than two decades of conservative governments. Known for his drive to make culture more accessible, one of Lang’s lasting legacies is the creation of the annual Fete de La Musique in June.
He has continued to be a prominent figure in the country’s culture world and had been the head of the Arab World Institute since 2013.
At the heart of the attention on the Langs is the revelation that Caroline Lang partnered with Epstein in 2016 in a company called Pyrtanée LLC specializing in the acquisition of work by emerging French artists, while Jack Lang is shown to have solicited funds from the financier to make a film.
Talking to investigative news-site Mediapart in the wake of the Epstein documents dump, Caroline Lang said that she and her father were introduced to the financier by Woody Allen and his partner Soon-Yi Previn in 2012
She said she had been “astoundingly naïve” in getting involved in the venture piloted by Epstein, but stated she had neither personally invested in or received money from the U.S. Virgin Islands-registered company.
As news of her Epstein ties trickled out, Caroline Lang resigned as managing director of France’s Independent Producer Syndicate (SPI) last week, saying she did not want to damage the body representing the interests of more than 500 independent producers.
Deadline has been informed that she has also since resigned from the board of French TV festival and market Series Mania, on which she was a long-time member.
Jack Lang’s resignation from the Arab World Institute followed an announcement by French prosecutors on Friday that they had opened a preliminary case against him and Caroline Lang for “aggravated tax fraud money laundering”.
News also broke on Friday that Lang had been summoned to the French Foreign Ministry for a meeting on Sunday at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Speculation was rife that Lang would be asked to step down, and he appears to have pre-empted the request.
He told AFP on Saturday that accusations levelled against him were “baseless” and that he welcomed the investigation with “serenity” and “even relief” because it would show he had done nothing wrong.
Jack and Caroline Lang’s lawyer told French news channel BFMTV on Saturday that he expected the probe to show that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of his clients.
“The justice system has asked them to prove that they did not receive any funds from this company,” he said. “They have said that is the case, and I hope that the prosecutor’s office will act very quickly to confirm that what Mr. Lang and his daughter have said is the absolute truth.”
In his Arab World Institute resignation letter, Lang again denied all the accusations against him and said he had decided to step down to protect the institution.
“The current climate, rife with personal attacks, suspicions, and unfounded conflations, is toxic. It revolts and disgusts me. It can only harm this magnificent institution,” he wrote.
Deadline has reached out to Caroline Lang and Jack Lang for comment via the SPI and the Arab World Institute respectively.
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