On January 9th, the academy member Lucien Clergue was elected president of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2013.

With the election of photographers Yann Arthus Bertrand in 2006 and Lucien Clergue this year , photography made its debut at the Academy, becoming its eighth section, a development strengthened by the election of the correspondents Agnès de Gouvion Saint Cyr and Bernard Perrine. Each section elects one of its members to serve as president for one year.