Given the wear and tear of its building, the Center Pompidou in Paris, inaugurated almost half a century ago, will be closed for works from late 2025 to 2030, with a total renovation costing more than 260 million euros.
Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak made the announcement during a press conference on Wednesday.
The Center Pompidou, also called Beaubourg, is one of the most important museums for modern and contemporary art in the world. Its collections number more than 140,000 works, from Marc Chagall to Pablo Picasso, including Frida Kahlo and Joan Miro.
Ultra-modern for its time, the building was designed by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers: a glass and metal structure suffused with light, irrigated by monumental arteries in bright colors.
The renovated museum wants to be able to stand up to the Bourse du Commerce and its brand new building or the Louis Vuitton Foundation and its impressive modern ambience.
AFP
The Louis Vuitton Foundation
The relocation and gradual closure of the Center Pompidou, whose teams number around 2,000 people, will begin in autumn 2024.
The renovation and asbestos removal work on all facades, fire protection, energy optimization of the building and the necessary precautions for better accessibility for people with restricted mobility are scheduled to begin in early 2026.
This work had become essential due to the corrosion and wear and tear of the huge building which, in addition to very important collections, also houses large exhibition rooms and a very large library.
They would make it possible “to ensure his survival,” emphasized the minister.
Announced in 2021, this work should initially extend from 2023 to 2027.
Of the 140,000 works of art belonging to the museum today (compared to 10,000 when it was founded in 1977), around 3,000 are on display. The Center Pompidou is “the world’s first lending museum,” with 8,000 to 10,000 works on loan each year, said Laurent Le Bon, President of the Center Pompidou, which has welcomed 300 million visitors since it opened in 1977 – and never before me have seen a renovation of this magnitude.
During the closure, some works will be included in other Parisian museums with which the Center Pompidou has partnerships, including the Louvre. During the works, more than 100 exhibition projects are planned in the regions.
Upon reopening, the museum spaces will maintain their positioning, but the hanging will be redesigned from a “multidisciplinary perspective”. New rooms for young people are planned, as well as the expansion of the library and the use of the 21,000 m2 of renovated parking spaces.
The full closure of Beaubourg comes after a significant drop in visitor numbers due to the years-long health crisis related to COVID-19.
In recent years, the museum has made numerous agreements that have strengthened its international reputation. In particular, in March he signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia for the creation of a future contemporary art museum dedicated to artists from the Arab world in Al-Ula.
The French museum is also negotiating with Korea’s Hanwha Corporate Foundation for an exhibition program in Seoul, and there is also cultural-technical support for the establishment of a modern art museum in the Brazilian state of Parana.