The President of the Centre Pompidou, Laurent Le Bon, hosted a press conference yesterday (Feb. 6) to announce how the museum would function during its forthcoming five-year closure (2025-2030). The iconic building, conceived of in 1977 by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, will undergo a 260 million euro renovation, mostly funded by the French state. “We are lucky to be in a country where there is public support,” Le Bon said.
The decision to close the institution was made in 2020 as part of a plan to optimize energy efficiency, make the museum more accessible and remove asbestos.
Le Bon opened the conference by addressing the in-house museum worker strikes that ended on January 29, speaking about what had been resolved and what hadn’t. He then pivoted to the focus of the conference—how the museum’s collections will function during its gradual closure, confirming that the new construction would officially begin in 2026 in anticipation of opening in 2030
“J’espère,” he conceded (“I hope”).
In his remarks, Le Bon made a........