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Tourists and French visitors alike filled Paris’s landmark Pompidou Centre at the weekend to catch a last glimpse of its prestigious art collection before it closes for five years for a major renovation.
“Five years – it’s long!” exclaimed one guide, Elisa Hervelin, as people around her took photos of many of the museum’s permanent works, among them paintings by Salvador Dalí and Henri Matisse and sculptures by Marcel Duchamp.
The 2,000-piece collection, on display on the fourth and fifth floors on the 48-year-old multicultural centre, is to be removed in a staggered process beginning on Monday.
The artworks are to be given temporary homes in museums across France and in other countries while the lengthy overhaul of the building – famously designed with its pipes and ventilation shafts colourfully adorning its facade – is carried out.
The full closure of the Pompidou Centre – which also comprises a vast library and a music research unit – will take place on 22 September. The €262m (£220m) renovations include removing asbestos from the structure.
With free entrance for its last weekend, visitors made the most of a last swing through the galleries, taking in the art as well as workshops, performances and DJ sets put on for the occasion.
Some were regulars to the museum, while others were seeing its collection in person for the first time.
Alyssa, an 11-year-old French girl taking it all in 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 her school’s art class.
Paula Goulart, a 25-year-old Brazilian, admitted she was there mainly for the spectacular view of the Paris skyline from the centre’s upper storeys.
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Her Portuguese friend Luis Fraga, though, was a frequent visitor to the museum who “wanted to enjoy as much as possible” the artworks before they were no longer here.
With 3.2 million visitors last year, the Pompidou Centre is one of the most popular museums in Paris, ranking behind only the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay in terms of attendance.
Opened in 1977, it is named after Georges Pompidou, France’s president between 1969 and 1974.
The renovation work will run through to 2030.
