Saudi Arabia ready to pay millions of euros to the Center Pompidou in exchange for good practices

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Substantial help. In exchange for cultural cooperation agreements, Saudi Arabia has committed to contributing up to 50 million euros to the renovation of the Center Pompidou in Paris, learned theAFP with the French Ministry of Culture on Tuesday.

“An envelope of around 358 million euros”

The announcement was made on the occasion of the visit to saudi arabia of President Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati.

The famous museum of modern art, also called Beaubourg, was inaugurated in 1977. It must close in the summer of 2025 until 2030 for renovation work. asbestos removal and renovationfrom top to bottom. A major project whose bill is estimated at 262 million euros for the State and which does not take into account the increase in operating costs during this period.

According to estimates from the Court of Auditors, the project, including all costs, “should mobilize an envelope of the order of 358 million eurosentirely financed from the state budget.

Added to this is a ambitious museum project of the Center Pompidou for post-2030, estimated at “180 million euros” from its own funds, with the help of “patronage”, “the circulation of works” and “the possible association of another country” , announced the president of the museum, Laurent Le Bon, in February.

Exchange of good practices

In exchange, France signs nine framework cooperation agreements, to provide its expertise to Saudi Arabia. The kingdom, host of the 2030 Universal Exhibition, wishes develop its cultural offer and increase its tourist attractiveness.

These agreements concern areas such as preventive archaeology, heritage, museums, cinema, libraries, cultural engineering or the training of Saudi personnel.

France had already signed a cultural cooperation agreement in 2018 which concerned the Al-Ula site, rich in archaeological remains. It supervises, among other things, the expertise brought by the Center Pompidou to a project of creation of a modern art museum in this region.
The signed agreements thus extend this cooperation with France to the entire Saudi territory.

With AFP.

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