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Tuesday, 15 April 2014 14:15

Picasso Museum Postpones Reopening

The Musée Picasso in Paris has postponed its reopening after announcing in February that it would open to the public in June. The museum has been closed for nearly five years for a renovation and expansion. Since the museum is under the stewardship of the French government, the Culture Ministry is responsible for determining an official reopening date.

The Musée Picasso, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Pablo Picasso’s work, initially closed for a two-year refurbishment, but once underway, the scope of the project expanded. Except for a few minor technical details, the renovation, which cost around $71 million, is complete.

Prior to the renovation, the Musée Picasso could only display a fraction of its 5,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and documents. The project nearly doubled the institution’s exhibition space, allowing the museum to display more of its illustrious collection. The museum will also be able to accommodate more guests than ever before and annual admission figures are expected to rise from 450,000 to 850,000.

The museum, which is located in a 17th-century Baroque mansion in Paris’ historic Marais quarter, first opened to the public in 1985. Most of its collection was left to the French state upon Picasso’s death in 1973. A number of works were also donated by the artist’s family, including his widow Jacqueline.

The Musée Picasso plans to reopen to the public by the end of the year.

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During the French Revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, French troops took Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens’ (1577-1640) The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus from the Tournai cathedral in Belgium. The work was whisked away to Paris and in 1801 it was sent to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes, France.

The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus is one half of a diptych that was commissioned for the cathedral by the bishop of Tournai in 1635. Napoleon’s army stole both The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus and its accompanying work, The Freeing of the Souls from Purgatory, which was returned to the cathedral in 1818.

Tournai officials are adamant about having the Rubens painting returned to the cathedral. Ruby Demotte, president of the French Community of Belgium, has penned a letter to French president Francois Hollande as well as to the French culture minister Aurélie Filippetti asking that the work be sent back to Belgium. Demotte made the same attempt last year but never received a response from the French government.

Tournai recently completed a major renovation of its cathedral and are hoping to finally reunite the two Rubens paintings.

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