Jack Lang, the former French culture minister, has resigned as head of the prestigious Arab World Institute in Paris after revelations of his past contacts with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and the launch of a financial investigation by French prosecutors. The 86-year-old stepped down on Saturday night before an urgent meeting called by the French foreign ministry to discuss his links to Epstein.
Earlier on Saturday, the French financial prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into Lang and his daughter, film producer Caroline Lang, on suspicion of “aggravated tax fraud laundering” after they were referenced in the Epstein files. Both have denied any wrongdoing. Lang’s lawyer, Laurent Merlet, said his client was “very sad and deeply hurt” to leave the role, adding that he had put the institute’s interests first.
Lang, a Socialist minister under President François Mitterrand in the 1980s and 1990s, oversaw major cultural projects such as the Louvre pyramid. He has headed the Arab World Institute, a cultural and research body supervised by the French foreign ministry, since 2013. His name appeared in Epstein’s personal files more than 600 times, with correspondence spanning 2012 to 2019.
Caroline Lang resigned this week from France’s Union of Independent Producers after emails showed she had founded an offshore company with Epstein in 2016. She said she left that company when further allegations emerged in 2019. According to investigative website Mediapart, she was also named as a beneficiary of €5m in Epstein’s will, which she denied ever knowing about or receiving.
In his defence, Lang said he was “shocked” to learn of Epstein’s criminal behaviour and had only known him as a philanthropist. A video showed them together outside the Louvre pyramid in March 2019, months before Epstein was charged with sex trafficking. Lang said he was introduced to Epstein by Woody Allen.
