Visitors flock to Paris’s Pompidou Centre before it closes for renovations
==========================================================================

Art lovers catch last glimpse of prestigious art collection before gallery shuts for five years for major revamp

 and agencies

Sun 9 Mar 2025 11.20 EDT First published on Sun 9 Mar 2025 06.36 EDT





Visitors from around the world have been flocking to the Pompidou Centre in Paris this weekend, seizing the last opportunity to enjoy Europe’s largest temple of modern and contemporary art before it closes its doors for a five-year overhaul.

In one of the most complex closures of its kind, the task of removing the museum’s 2,000-strong permanent collection will start on Monday. The Pompidou’s Chagalls, Giacomettis and myriad other treasures will be relocated to other sites in Paris and museums elsewhere in  and around the world.

Once complete, the cultural colossus, named after Georges Pompidou, France’s conservative president between 1969 and 1974, is to be reopened with a new exhibition space, offering what museum bosses have called a “multidisciplinary perspective” with new spaces for children and young people, as well as an enlarged library.

Art lovers have until 9pm on Monday to take a final stroll through the permanent collection. However, Laurent Le Bon, art historian and the museum’s head, said those who missed the deadline would have plenty of other chances to see the Pompidou’s works. Calling the renovation a “an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent the Centre Pompidou”, he has said: “We will use the time we have well.”

Alyssa, an 11-year-old French girl visiting with her 62-year-old grandfather, said she wanted to “see for real” the abstract paintings of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, which she had been shown in school.

Paula Goulart, a 25-year-old from Brazil, told Agence France-Presse she was a fan not so much of the artworks as of the spectacular views of the Paris skyline from the building’s upper storeys. Her Portuguese friend Luis Fraga said he was a regular visitor to the museum and was keen to lap up and “enjoy as much as possible” the artworks “before they are no longer here”.

The Pompidou Centre, which attracted more than 3 million visitors last year, is one of the most popular museums in the world, ranking in Paris behind only the Louvre (8 million) and the Musée d’Orsay (3.7 million) in terms of popularity.





DNA of rare mussels found in Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working





Paris trial





DNA of rare mussels found in Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working





DNA of rare mussels found in Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working





DNA of rare mussels found in Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working





DNA of rare mussels found in Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working





DNA of rare mussels found in Seine raises hopes Paris clean-up is working






















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































```