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Chinese artist Ko Siu Lan
The huge black banners daubed with the words "earn - less - work - more" in white were hung up on Wednesday as part of an exhibition organised by the school in central Paris, but ordered removed within hours by college authorities.
The phrase was a play on Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign slogan "Work more to earn more."
Ko, 32, said that Mitterrand had called her Saturday to apologise for what he called an "idiotic" incident.
"I hope that the banners can be put back today," she said.
The Ecole des Beaux Arts said that it had acted because Ko's work threatened "the neutrality of the public service."
Ko, who studied for several years in France before returning to China, said Thursday that she had been alerted to the removal of the work by the exhibition's curator Clare Carolin, who had tried to stop it being taken down.
Ko showed AFP an email in which Carolin wrote to her that she had been summoned to the school's director Henry-Claude Cousseau.
He had told her that Ko's work was "too explosive" to be allowed to remain in place and that several school staff members and officials from the education ministry had taken offence, Carolin said in the mail.
The director also said that it was a sensitive time for the school because it was renewing its financial arrangements with the education ministry, she wrote.
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The phrase was a play on Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign slogan "Work more to earn more."
Ko, 32, said that Mitterrand had called her Saturday to apologise for what he called an "idiotic" incident.
"I hope that the banners can be put back today," she said.
The Ecole des Beaux Arts said that it had acted because Ko's work threatened "the neutrality of the public service."
Ko, who studied for several years in France before returning to China, said Thursday that she had been alerted to the removal of the work by the exhibition's curator Clare Carolin, who had tried to stop it being taken down.
Ko showed AFP an email in which Carolin wrote to her that she had been summoned to the school's director Henry-Claude Cousseau.
He had told her that Ko's work was "too explosive" to be allowed to remain in place and that several school staff members and officials from the education ministry had taken offence, Carolin said in the mail.
The director also said that it was a sensitive time for the school because it was renewing its financial arrangements with the education ministry, she wrote.
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