 The French word ‘pension’ refers to the room & board these, generally young and promising, artists receive.The artists are no longer recruited by a competition but by application, and their stays vary from six to eighteen months and even, more rarely, two years.Between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus, then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, providing them with modern equipment.