French former culture minister Jack Lang leaves after attending the funeral ceremony for French-Italian actor Claudia Cardinale at the Saint-Roch Church in Paris on September 30, 2025.
BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
The scandal surrounding the release of the Epstein files has rocked the French ruling class. The most prominent victim is former Socialist Culture Minister Jack Lang. Once adored by the progressive Left for his involvement in public cultural programmes, he was forced to resign from his position as director of the Arab World Institute as the extent of his material and moral corruption—known to all but carefully concealed for years—came to light.
Jack Lang is one of those untouchable figures of the French Republic. Minister of culture during the socialist presidency of François Mitterrand, his name is associated with some of the progressive Left’s greatest achievements, like the creation of the Fête de la Musique (Music Feast), which is now held every year at the end of June.
Since 2013, Jack Lang had been president of the Arab World Institute (Institut du Monde Arabe, or IMA), a prestigious Parisian public cultural institution dedicated to dialogue between French and Arab cultures—and very hungry for subsidies and politically correct projects. It was in 2012, shortly before his appointment as head of the IMA, that he met Epstein through filmmaker Woody Allen.
As soon as the Epstein files were made public, Jack Lang’s name circulated in the French press, his connections with the American billionaire being well-known. His name appears no less than 600 times in Epstein’s correspondence. Lang saw him as a patron and a friend. He claims to be “very naïve” and to have never heard of Epstein’s 2008 convictions for child sex offences.
Jack Lang was known for his luxurious lifestyle: a Parisian apartment on the famous and magnificent Place des Vosges, gourmet restaurants, luxury cars—he ticked all the boxes of the outward signs of wealth, notably maintained by Epstein’s gifts, in cash or in kind. Epstein lent him his car and his jet. He spent tens of thousands of dollars to maintain the ‘Lang myth’ through all kinds of productions and communications: $50,000 for a film about the epic ‘Lang years,’ $30,000 for a film in tribute to his daughter…
Jack Lang was not the only one to benefit from Epstein’s generosity. It was actually a family system. An offshore company, Prytanee LCC, based in the British Virgin Islands, was created in 2016 with “friend Jeffrey.” The idea, put on the table in 2015, was as follows: Epstein would create a fund, to which he would contribute $20 million, for Jack Lang to buy works of art, which he would later resell and share the profits 50-50. “No risk for your side. It will be fun!” Epstein enthused. “Wow!!!” replied Caroline, Jack Lang’s daughter. She worked for Warner Bros for thirty years and acted as a liaison between Jack and Jeffrey.
The fall is hard. For many years, Jack Lang was an icon of the French art world. No film, no vernissage, no exhibition could hope to attract attention unless it was supported and promoted by Jack Lang, whose opinion was considered the ultimate authority. He came to see himself as untouchable, hence his reaction when rumours of his escapades finally reached him and the question of his resignation arose: “What have I done that is reprehensible? What legal action has been taken against me? This is absurd,” he reacted, according to Le Monde.
Today, however, his former allies are forced to acknowledge that their idol had a hidden side and that many of them were well aware of his misdeeds. “He never missed an opportunity to promote himself, an honour, a medal, he is the guardian of his legacy and his recognition every second of his life… Everyone knew he didn’t pay for anything. He believes he should be invited everywhere, in luxurious conditions,” says Rima Abdul Malak, also a former culture minister.
To maintain his lifestyle, Lang had two options: either he got financed by Epstein, among others, or he simply didn’t pay—he was known for that. At Edgard’s, a prestigious Parisian restaurant, he is known as the white wolf: “The Langs will never be welcome here again, they owe me ten years’ worth of lunches,” the owner of the establishment told Le Monde. In Cannes, the city of the film festival, he left unpaid bills amounting to several thousand euros in almost all the luxury hotels on the Croisette—which now refuse to host him.
But Lang’s abysmal material corruption is certainly only part of the problem. It is the cloud of glitter that hides his moral corruption.
Jack Lang was one of the signatories of the scandalous 1977 petition published in the newspaper Le Monde, aimed at legalising or at least decriminalising paedophilia. In the Epstein files, an educational project entitled ‘Petit Prince,’ discussed with Lang in 2013, raises questions. “Should children be introduced to religion and new sexualities?” asks Jeffrey Epstein in an email. We will not know more, as the former minister does not remember what it is about.
Lang’s dark reputation, which has fuelled various theories for years, is now coming to light. In the past, recurring rumours from multiple sources have reported possible orgies involving minors in Morocco in which Lang was allegedly involved—without any investigation or conviction ever being successful. In the Epstein files, a series of emails indicate that the former minister and his wife corresponded with the American financier in 2015 about the purchase of a riad in Morocco. Lang defends himself by claiming that he was merely an “intermediary.”
For now, the untouchable figure of the Republic is not under investigation or facing any legal proceedings. But his glory days are well and truly over.
