Max Sarradet was a high-ranking civil servant assigned to the Ministry for Cultural Affairs, as well as a curator for historical monuments in Aquitaine until 1980. He also was the curator of the Lascaux cave from 1955 to 1981. After the cave was closed to the public, he was named Secretary General of the Committee for the Study and Preservation of the Lascaux Cave, from 1963 to 1976. Ove rand beyond his administrative responsibilities, Sarradet's contribution to Lascaux was to have very quickly distanced himself from the reassuring viewpoints of the first experts, who were mostly concerned with the well-being of visitors. Beginning in 1960, he also alerted André Malraux, Minister for Cultural Affairs, that the excessive numbers of tourists risked posed a threat to the survival of the prehistoric paintings. He was finally able to convince Malraux to close the cave to the public on 20 April 1963, as soon as he obtained the first report from the committee, which had been set up in March of the same year. (from Monumental, 2006, p. 61)
AUDOUZE (Françoise), SCHLANGER (Nathan) dir. – Autour de l’homme, contexte et actualité d’André Leroi-Gourhan, Antibes, APDCA, 2004, 442 p., ill.