The Center Pompidou was closed on Monday due to a strike by staff, eager to obtain guarantees on the sustainability of positions and missions when it closes for five years from 2025.
The management of the Center Pompidou, which houses, in addition to the modern art museum, a library and a number of cultural mediation spaces, confirmed to AFP the closure of its doors on Monday “due to a strike action relating to the redeployment of positions during and after the closure” of the structure.
“Around a thousand people working in security, mediation, conservation, publishing, cinema or administrative and technical services are affected by this closure and are asking for guarantees on the sustainability of their positions and their missions”explained Nathalie Ramos of the national union of museums and estates CGT Culture.
A negotiation meeting between the inter-union (CFDT, CGT, FO, Unsa, SUD), the management of the Center Pompidou and the Ministry of Culture “hasn’t given anything so far”according to this manager, and “a renewable strike notice for one month has been filed”.
The unions demand “guarantees and written commitments concerning the payroll, redeployment but also the maintenance of positions and the continuity of public service, fearing outsourcing”she clarified.
140,000 works
Faced with wear and tear on its building, the Center Pompidou in Paris, also called Beaubourg, which was inaugurated almost half a century ago, will close for work from the end of 2025 to 2030, a complete renovation estimated at more than of 260 million euros.
Ultra modern for its time, the building was designed by architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers: a glass and metal structure penetrated by light, it is irrigated by monumental arteries in bright colors.
It is one of the most important modern and contemporary art museums in the world. Its collections bring together more than 140,000 works, from Marc Chagall to Pablo Picasso, including Frida Kahlo and Joan Miro.