The Andalusian outpost of France’s Pompidou Centre signed a new deal with the city of Malaga last week, allowing the space to stay in operation for another decade.
ADVERTISEMENTFirst opened in 2015, the largely subterranean waterfront museum is famed for French artist Daniel Buren’s vibrantly coloured glass cube, which marks the 6,000-square metre museum’s presence above ground at Malaga’s port.
Now, The Art Newspaper reports that the city council has agreed to pay the museum €2.7 million annually from 2025-2029, and €3.1 million from 2030-2034 – in an undoubtedly welcome affirmation of trust in the Pompidou brand.
According to the Pompidou Centre, the Malaga museum has attracted more than three million visitors since it opened.
News of the deal comes amid a series of setbacks for the iconic modern and contemporary art museum in Paris, which is preparing to shut down for prolonged renovations – a project that could take up to five years to complete, at an estimated cost of €262m – and whose plans to open a US branch were stalled last month.
With its financing a source of controversy from the outset, the future of the Pompidou Centre’s first North American location was thrown into real jeopardy when local authorities in New Jersey withdrew public funding from the project. The museum later said that the project had been "suspended until further notice”.
Centre Pompidou x Jersey City was slated to be the fifth overseas centre for the Pompidou Centre, which has, in addition to Malaga, already opened or co-created outposts in Shanghai and Brussels, as well as working with the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
