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The French Academy in Rome was created in 1666 by Louis XIV, to send young artists who had won the Prix de Rome (a competition set up by Colbert three years earlier) to Rome, where they would perfect their training in contact with the masterpieces of Antiquity and the Renaissance. After successively occupying several Roman palaces, including the Palazzo Mancini, in 1803 the Academy moved permanently to Villa Medici, a Renaissance palace on the Pincio hill, named after its most famous owner: cardinale Ferdinando de’ Medici (1549-1609). In the 1960s, the Academy’s operations were radically transformed under the impetus of Balthus, then director of the institution, appointed on the initiative of André Malraux, Minister of Culture.
The French Academy in Rome has three complementary missions:
Added to these is the cross-cutting mission of welcoming a wide audience and implementing outreach and educational initiatives designed to ensure equal access to culture for all.