French Professor Investigated Over Self-Created Philology Medal He Awarded to Chomsky and Others

French authorities are investigating literature professor Florent Montaclair for suspected forgery, use of forged documents, impersonation and fraud after he invented the Gold Medal of Philology and presented it to himself at a 2016 ceremony at the French national assembly.

Montaclair, then 46, a balding, bespectacled figure in an ill-fitting suit and rosé-coloured shirt, received the award in front of Nobel prize winners, former government ministers, MPs, decorated scientists and academics. The Guardian reported that he was described as the first French recipient of the medal, previously awarded to the Italian author and linguist Umberto Eco.

Montaclair had bought the medal from a jeweller in Paris for €250. The 2016 Gold Medal of Philology was presented by an entity claiming to be the International Society of Philology.

The American university to which the society was supposedly affiliated existed only online and its address was traced to a jewellery store in Lewes, Delaware. The University of Philology and Education and the International Society of Philology existed solely through websites created and hosted in France.

Detectives spent months trying to unpick what public prosecutor Paul-Édouard Lallois described as a “tissue of lies”.

Lallois, based in Montbéliard in eastern France, said he found “all roads lead back to Monsieur Montaclair”. “It was all a gigantic hoax. It could be made into a film or television series,” Lallois told the Guardian.

Montaclair is employed at the Marie and Louis Pasteur University, a teacher training college in Besançon. Until 2015 he was an unremarkable teaching instructor who liked to write fantasy books, many about vampires, in his spare time. In 2015 an article appeared in Montaclair’s local newspaper claiming he was about to win the equivalent of a Nobel prize or Fields medal.

After the national assembly ceremony, Montaclair decided the next recipient should be the American intellectual Noam Chomsky, then 87, who travelled to Paris to collect the award in front of 200 people. In 2018 Montaclair designated Eugen Simion, then 85, as winner. ” Their reporting revealed the full extent of the alleged scheme.

Montaclair’s ambition drew official scrutiny. In 2018 he applied to the French ministry of higher education for promotion, allegedly backing up his request by submitting a “state doctorate” awarded by the same American university. Although the qualification was not recognised in France, he was subsequently promoted and made an associate professor.

Police arrived at Montaclair’s home in February with a search warrant. Montaclair admitted ordering the medal and creating or running certain websites. He denies any criminality and denies comparing the award to a Nobel or Fields prize.

Lallois said the investigation centres on whether Montaclair obtained that promotion and any material gain from an allegedly fake diploma and medal. The prosecutor quoted Montaclair’s position that the medal is not a forgery because a forgery implies that there is a genuine medal. “Anyone can create a medal.

You can order online the ‘best journalist in France’ medal, in gold, silver or bronze, award it to yourself and hold your own little ceremony quietly at home over drinks,” Lallois said. “If you stay at home with your little medals on top of your mantelpiece, there are no legal consequences.

” Montaclair has also been given legal notice that he is to be suspended in a separate investigation by his university employers but has indicated to them he intends to appeal.

Jean-Baptiste Euvrard, Montaclair’s lawyer, said inventing an international award and the society that bestowed it “is not a criminal offence”. “People are saying that 10 years ago, everyone fell for a monstrous hoax but everyone has the right to be imaginative; it’s up to the person you’re talking to whether they believe it or not,” Euvrard told Le Monde.

Lallois also believes Montaclair ended up “believing his own lie”.

The prosecutor said he would be interviewing Montaclair again in a few weeks and would then decide if any charges should be pressed. Montaclair faces a maximum five-year sentence if convicted. Lallois said the question remains why the professor, described as very intelligent, cultured and interesting, risked his entire career.

He had a good career in the public education system, even if it appeared to have stagnated a little.