A museum commemorating the artistic community in the Paris neighborhood of Montparnasse has been permanently shuttered by the City of Paris, French art newspaper "Le quotidien de l’art" reported. The Musée du Montparnasse, established in 1996 in an historic building that originally served as the atelier of Russian artist Marie Vassilieff in the early 20th century, first closed its doors following a September 2013 audit ordered by the City of Paris, which owns the museum’s 4,600-square-foot building at 21 avenue du Maine in the 15th arrondissement. The audit deemed the museum not in compliance with the city’s rubric for an institution of its kind for lacking a permanent collection — this despite its founding designation by the city’s cultural affairs bureau as “a location emblematic of the artistic history of Paris.”
