Pompidou Museum invites public for last look before renovation

PARIS

The Pompidou Museum in Paris is set to open its doors for a show of DJs and performances this weekend before its permanent collection is removed ahead of renovation work.

The museum, one of the world's biggest modern art spaces, will close most of its galleries from March 10 evening before specialists begin taking away the roughly 2,000 items that are on permanent display from paintings by Francis Bacon to the sculptures of Marcel Duchamp.

"This colossal operation has taken months, even years, to prepare," production director Claire Garnier told AFP.

Temporary exhibitions are set to continue until September, when the public will be shut out entirely for five years while a colossal overhaul, including asbestos removal, takes place.

The museum is one the most visited in the French capital and a beloved landmark, designed by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and opened in 1977.

It will be free for visitors to enter from Friday evening when Paris-based DJs Louise Chen and Busy P (Pedro Winter) are scheduled to play inside, with attendees invited to dress or create accessories inspired by the permanent collection.

The museum will remain open to the public free-of-charge over the weekend and until late on Monday evening, with music, dance and educational workshops scheduled to take place in different parts of the iconic building.

The state of Paris's often crowded cultural attractions hit the headlines in January when the head of the Louvre warned that the world's most-visited museum was suffering from water damage, poor maintenance and long queues.

President Emmanuel Macron visited afterwards to promise that it would be "redesigned, restored and enlarged" with a multi-year overhaul forecast to cost up to 800 million euros ($830 million).

The Pompidou museum's renovation work has a provisional budget of 262 million euros.