The Museum That Looks Like Its Benefactor

Paris’s new Musée du Quai Branly was supposed to be former French President Jacques Chirac’s lasting cultural legacy. But Tom Dyckhoff says that Chirac doesn’t have much to be proud of. “This is a building that never quite resolves itself: not fusion food, but a stew of rich, mismatched ingredients. A saviour for the city? No chance. But, eccentric, incoherent and full of unresolved doubts, it’s the perfect epitaph for Chirac.”