Centre Pompidou to Shutter for Five Years

Major renovations to the Paris museum will begin in 2026. Works from its collection will continue to show through partner institutions.

The iconic Centre Pompidou in Paris will close for five years beginning in December 2025. The closure will come two years later and last two years longer than estimated when it was first announced in 2021. Consequently, the museum will now be closed during its 50th anniversary in 2027.

'We don't have a choice,' Serge Lasvignes, the museum's president, told French newspaper Le Figaro in 2021. 'The building is suffering.'

Required fixes include removing asbestos from the windows and façade, and an overhaul of the building's exterior.

Alterations include a new agora, a larger library, and modernised cinema, and performance halls.

In a statement, Centre Pompidou said they would also create space for 'phygital' experiences, which use physical and digital media to create immersive mixed-reality experiences.

The museum's collection will have multiple avenues for display while it is closed.

Centre Pompidou will open a dedicated conservation centre and programming space in Massy, a southern suburb of Paris, in 2026.

Collaborations are planned with other Paris institutions including the Louvre Museum and the Palais de Tokyo, among others.

Centre Pompidou will also develop exhibitions in partnership with Centre Pompidou-Metz, Musée LaM in Lille, the Musée de Grenoble, and the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence.

Outside of France, discussions are underway for extensions to the Centre Pompidou Málaga in Spain and the Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project Shanghai.

KANAL–Centre Pompidou will open in Brussels in 2025 and a temporary installation project in Jersey City, New Jersey, will open the following year.

Centre Pompidou is also in talks about a cultural project in Paraná, Brazil, and cooperating on exhibition programming with the Hanwha Foundation in Seoul. —[O]