Petition against the temporary closure of the Center Pompidou, “a serious fault”

"We, professionals of art and culture, concerned about France's rank in the world, would like to express our deep concern and our incomprehension", write Daniel Buren, Julie Gayet, Catherine Millet, Alain Minc, Jacques Toubon and Manuel Valls, among other personalities, in this petition published by the daily Le Figaro on Saturday.

The museum of modern art, also called Beaubourg and inaugurated almost half a century ago, must close in the summer of 2025 until 2030 for major asbestos removal and renovation work, estimated at 260 million euros financed by the State.

This work “can and must be carried out in a fragmented manner, without completely closing the entire site”, plead the signatories to the Head of State and the Minister of Culture.

An email address has been opened to collect signatures: pompidounedoitpasfermer@gmail.com.

The move from the Center Pompidou is due to begin in October, after the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. The first closures to the public will take place at the beginning of 2025 (performance halls at the beginning of 2025, museum and library from March) for a complete closure of the exhibition spaces in the summer.

Part of the collections comprising around 140.000 works in total, including 3.000 permanently exhibited, will be housed at the Grand Palais, also under construction since 2021.

From the fall of 2026, the Louvre will also host modern and contemporary works around “the notion of object” on a full-time basis.

Other works will be dispersed in other Parisian museums (Orsay, Orangerie, Jeu de Paume, Guimet, Quai Branly....), at the Center Pompidou in Metz, in the region, in Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as at the 'stranger.

Last fall, employees of the Center Pompidou followed a long strike for the future of their jobs and their missions.

During the closure, agents must be partly redeployed to the Grand Palais, to collection storage premises in the north of Paris and then to a new creation and conservation center in Massy (Paris region) which is due to open in 2026.