Paris to close iconic Pompidou Centre for five-year facelift

The Pompidou Centre in Paris, one of the world's top modern art museums, will shut down for refurbishment for five years from 2025, France's culture minister said earlier this week – one year longer than previously announced. The renovation work will include the removal of asbestos from the building and is estimated to cost more than €260 million.

The Pompidou Centre in Paris is one of the world's most important museums of modern and contemporary art. © AFP - Loic Venance

One of the French capital's most popular cultural attractions, the Pompidou Centre houses work by artists from Pablo Picasso to Wassily Kandinsky and welcomed more than three million visitors last year.

But its groundbreaking "inside-out" structure by architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, which displays its pipework on the outside, has suffered serious wear and tear since it first opened in 1977.

Culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said the refurbishment would "enable its survival".

The building's first major upgrade in its history will cost €262 million and see the structure updated for fire safety, disability access and general repairs.

On the inside gallery spaces will be reworked, while new areas will be installed for younger visitors and its popular public library will be expanded.

Open for the Olympics

The upgrade was initially planned to run from 2023 to 2027 to allow the building to reopen for its 50th anniversary. It will now remain closed until 2030.

The original timetable would also have kept the Pompidou shuttered during the 2024 Paris Olympics, which are expected to bring millions of visitors to the city.

To allow the museum to benefit from the extra tourists, the renovations were put off first until autumn 2024, and now until late 2025.

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The Pompidou has sought to boost its coffers recently with international deals, signing an agreement with Saudi Arabia in March to help build a modern art museum at the Al-Ula heritage site.

It already has franchise museums in Shanghai, Brussels and Malaga, as well as a large outpost in Metz in eastern France.