Picasso Museum in Paris to relaunch on artist's birthday
by Alice Davis | 19 Aug 2014
Musée Picasso in Hôtel Salé in the Marais district of Paris, where 5,000 of Pablo Picasso's works are housed / LPLT via Wikimedia Commons
Three years behind schedule, significantly over budget and with no lack of controversy, the Picasso Museum in Paris finally looks set to open. The French culture ministry announced the long-awaited unveiling would take place on 25 October, exactly 133 years since Pablo Picasso was born.
Musée Picasso closed to the public in 2009 for the renovation of the 17th-century building and an ambitious expansion that would double the exhibition area. Architect Jean-François Bodin designed the space, which also included a new entry, garden, coffee shop and other facilities. The work had an original budget of £24m (US$40m, €30m), but spending has ballooned to £42m (US$69m, €52m).
There was further disruption in May 2014, when the gallery’s former director Anne Baldassari was fired by the ministry — though she initially refused to step down — after a staff mutiny rounded off the over-running renovation saga. Baldassari, who had worked at the museum for more than 20 years, had the backing of the painter’s son Claude Picasso, who said her dismissal was “grotesque and insane”, but was replaced by the Centre Pompidou-Metz’s Laurent Le Bon.
Musée Picasso holds 5,000 works and artefacts. Much of the collection was left to the French state after Picasso died in 1973. With the revamped museum also hosting rotating exhibits and cultural events, visitor numbers are expected to grow from 450,000 to 850,000 per year.
In better news for the museum, Picasso’s eldest daughter, Maya Widmaier-Picasso, promised in July to donate two of her father’s works, a drawing and a notebook.
In April, the museum announced the postponement of its scheduled June opening, though works were largely completed, aside from “technical details”.
Three years behind schedule, significantly over budget and with no lack of controversy, the Picasso Museum in Paris finally looks set to open. The French culture ministry announced the long-awaited unveiling would take place on 25 October, exactly 133 years since Pablo Picasso was born. Musée Picasso closed to the public in 2009 for the renovation of the 17th-century building and an ambitious expansion that would double the exhibition area.
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