Villa Noailles: Hugo Lucchino succeeds Jean-Pierre Blanc, against a backdrop of financial excesses

This appointment brings to an end months of turmoil at the head of Villa Noailles. Hugo Lucchino, secretary general of the Palais Galliera, has been appointed director of Villa Noailles in the Var region, the art center announced on Tuesday, August 19, after it was run for forty years by the charismatic Jean-Pierre Blanc, whose financial management had been contested for several months.

The venue hosts the prestigious Hyères International Fashion Festival every year, a springboard for young designers. The nomination was unanimously approved by a selection panel.

In March, according to ici Provence, a report presented by the Ministry of Culture to representatives of the local authorities that subsidize the venue expressed concern about the Villa's debt levels, particularly citing exorbitant entertainment costs. Since then, the fate of Jean-Pierre Blanc, founder of the International Fashion Festival in 1986, and then twenty years later of the Design Parade Festival , has been hanging in the balance.

Built in the 1920s for patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, Villa Noailles, designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, was renovated in 2003 as a contemporary art center. Listed as a historic monument, it is managed by an association, subsidized primarily by public funds, and offers a program focused on fashion, photography, architecture, design, and interior design.

Hugo Lucchino, 34, has been Secretary General of the Palais Galliéra, the City of Paris's fashion museum, since 2020. He was previously Secretary General of Signe, the National Center for Graphic Design. His programming at the Villa Noailles, where he will take up his duties in the fall, will focus on two festivals: the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography, and Accessories and the Hyères and Toulon Design Parade Festivals, as well as promoting the site's heritage, according to the Villa's press release.

"I am delighted to soon be joining the Villa Noailles team to imagine together the continuation of its history around its two pillars, fashion and design," declares Hugo Lucchino, who thanks Jean-Pierre Blanc "for the unique legacy" he is passing on to him.