France to shut Pompidou museum for five years in 2025

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 Wednesday. 

The Pompidou houses work by artists from Pablo Picasso to Wassily Kandinsky and welcomed more than three million visitors last year. But its ground-breaking "inside out" structure by architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, that displays pipework on the outside, has suffered serious wear and tear.

The institution is also facing stiff competition from newer Parisian galleries created by the mega-wealthy Louis Vuitton Foundation and billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault. 

Culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said the refurbishment would "enable its survival" and hailed the museum for hosting 300 million visitors since it was opened in 1977. 

The Pompidou boasts Europe's biggest modern art collection and is the world's leading lender of paintings and sculptures, lending out between 8,000 and 10,000 a year to other museums and galleries.

The building's first major upgrade in its history will cost 262 million euros ($287 million) and will see the structure updated for fire safety, disability access and general repairs.

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

The upgrade was initially planned to run from 2023 to 2027 to allow the building to reopen for its 50th anniversary, but it now will not reopen until 2030.

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, Spain, as well as a large outpost in Metz in eastern France.

It is also working with Korean business group Hanwha on a series of exhibitions in Seoul. (AFP)