Visitors from all over the world have been flocking to the Pompidou Centre in Paris this weekend, seizing the last chance to undergo a five-year overhaul before Europe’s largest temple of modern and modern art closed.
In one of the most complex closures of its kind, the mission of deleting the museum’s permanent collection will begin on Monday. The chagalls, giacomettis and other treasures of Pompidou will be relocated to other places in France and around the world in Paris and other locations in museums.
The renovation of the nearly 50-year-old building built by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers in the heart of Paris is expected to cost about €26.2 billion and will require the entire center, including its sprawling library and music research unit, to close from late September.
Known for its exterior walls decorated with colorful pipes and ventilation shafts, the building will undergo self-surface renovations, all from its technology and accessibility to the energy efficiency of renovating. The most crucial thing is that asbestos was cleared everywhere from the museum’s ceiling to the pipeline, which was a huge task that proposed a complete demolition.
After completion, the cultural colossus, which will be named after French conservative President Georges Pompidou between 1969 and 1974, will be reopened to reopen with a new exhibition space, providing what museum owners call a “multidiscipline perspective” and providing new spaces for children and young people, as well as an expanded library.
Art lovers must complete the last stroll of the permanent collection by 9pm on Monday. However, art historian and museum head Laurent Le Bon said those who missed the deadline would have many more opportunities to see Pompidou’s work. He called the renovation “an unprecedented opportunity to reshape the center Pompidou”, saying: “We will use our time.”
Some of these works will be taken out of the repository for exhibitions at the Grand Palais in Paris – after a massive renovation, the exhibition reopened last summer.
French tourists and foreign tourists were one of the advantages of last weekend, with the entrance being free, workshops, art performances and DJ scenes contributing to the lively atmosphere.
Alyssa, an 11-year-old French girl who visited with her 62-year-old grandfather, wanted to “see the abstract paintings of real” Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, who she has shown at school.
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Paula Goulart, 25, from Brazil, told Agence France-Presse that she is a fan, not a spectacular work of art from the Paris skyline above the building. Her Portuguese friend, Luis Fraga, said he was a regular visitor to the museum, eager to go bankrupt and “enjoy as much as possible” the artwork “before it is no longer here.”
The Centre Pompidou, which attracted more than 3 million visitors last year, is one of the most popular museums in the world, only after Paris (8 million) and the Louvre (8 million) and the Isle of Osay (3.7 million).
Its closing comes weeks after the mass renovation work was announced in the Louvre, amid a massive criticism of the museum becoming overcrowded and difficult to manage. For the project, an estimated cost of 70-800 million euros involves creating a new, more accessible entrance and placing the Mona Lisa in a separate room with its own means of access, but the museum will not be closed, although some individual rooms will be temporarily. It was originally scheduled to be completed in 2031.
Those considering the long-term closure of Pompidou’s plan may be solace in search of Berlin, where visitors want to visit the Pergamon Museum, which houses ancient Greek and Roman art as well as the Pergamon Artar and the Pergamon Artar, will have to wait 20 years to complete for up to 20 years. The museum will be closed in October 2023.
France-Pars-Pars contributed to this report.
