The Pompidou Centre in Paris will close its doors on September 22, 2025, for five years of renovations set to transform the landmark. While the closure will leave a noticeable gap in the Beaubourg neighbourhood, masterpieces from Europe’s largest modern art collection will continue to be exhibited across France and abroad through temporary shows and loans.
It has been nicknamed "Notre-Dame des Tuyaux" or "Our Lady of the Pipes", the "Gasworks" and "The Shack". Paris's Pompidou Centre certainly caused a stir when it was inaugurated on January 31, 1977. Designed in the frenzy of the 1970s by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers – themselves inspired by the revolutionary ideas of May 1968 – the Pompidou Centre aimed to open up culture to all and make art a living, interactive experience.
Nearly fifty years later, this vast cultural centre has become synonymous with the Beaubourg district in the heart of Paris. While it closes to the public for major renovations to remove asbestos and insulate the building, its collection of modern art – the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world after the MOMA in New York – will not be disappearing.
The Pompidou Centre has set up the "Constellations" programme, establishing key partnerships to ensure its collections remain accessible during the renovation work over the years to come. One of those partners is the Grand Palais in Paris, which will host all of the Pompidou Centre's temporary exhibitions until 2030.
Several masterpieces that had never previously left Paris have also been loaned to the Pompidou Centre's offshoot in Metz, in the east of France. Sculptures by Henry Moore and Henri Laurens, Sonia Delaunay's "Le Bal Bullier" and the wall of André Malraux's studio have all been transported to this new exhibition space.
And while one door closes, another opens: a new branch of the Pompidou Centre is set to welcome visitors at the end of 2026 in Massy, in the greater Paris region. Its aim is to attract a wide range of visitors to a new site half an hour from Paris, where there’s enough space to restore artworks and to stage exhibitions and events.
In short, modern art lovers will have plenty of opportunities to contemplate these world-class collections while the iconic "Beaubourg" building undergoes a facelift.
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