Paris, citizens ask not to close the Pompidou for 3 years. But there is little hope

A petition to ask the French government not to close the Centre Pompidou during maintenance work planned from 2023 to 2026, which will result in the lockdown of Paris’ celebrated contemporary art museum for at least three years. Launching it, on Change.org, is the Association pour la défense des riverains et l’animation du quartier des Halles (ADRAQH), which is addressing the French minister of culture, Roselyne Bachelot. “Has it been forgotten,” the appeal’s drafters wonder, “that the Parisian temple of contemporary art is also the keystone of an ecosystem (particularly the central districts of Saint-Merri, Halles and Marais) whose economic and cultural actors are largely dependent on Beaubourg’s visitor flows?”

The only alternative, according to the association that defends residents of the Halles neighborhood, is to keep the Centre Pompidou open during the works. “A solution,” the text of the petition further reads, “that will avoid the bankruptcy of hundreds of businesses, already weakened by the Covid-19 crisis and uan array of heavy works, and will maintain the high quality of artistic and cultural life in the center of Paris, from the Louvre to Marais via the Bourse du Commerce, a strategic international tourist area.”

According to ADRAQH, keeping the Centre Pompidou open during the works is possible because some work has already been done while the museum is still open, so the experience could be repeated. But ADRAQH is not the only party to complain about the disadvantages that will result from the closure: the mayor of the municipality of central Paris, Ariel Weil, has also written to the president of the Pompidou, Serge Lasvignes, to point out how the decision was made unilaterally and without discussion with the city. “The heart of Beaubourg,” Weil said in a letter sent to Lasvignes, “beats to the rhythm of the Centre Pompidou,” and as a result its closure could bring “potentially dramatic economic and social consequences.”

Lasvignes said he was ready to meet with Beaubourg residents and merchants, but he also made it known that the decision to close the museum was not taken lightly. “The works,” he previously told Le Figaro, “are inevitable. The building is in danger. The safety of workers, visitors, and works depends on it. We have no choice. For us, too, closure is the worst thing.” And he recalls that, had the decision been made to keep the museum open, “the construction site would have lasted seven years, would have cost more (226 million versus the current 200 million) and, most importantly, it would not have been possible to remove all the asbestos from the building.” The decision to close the museum thus seems irrevocable, but, as, moreover, Lasvignes had already let it be known in recent days, at least the Centre Pompidou library will remain open until it is moved to another location.

Photo: Centre Pompidou. Ph. Credit

Paris, citizens ask not to close the Pompidou for 3 years. But there is little hope

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