RFI
19 Mar 2023, 20:47 GMT+10
The Pompidou Centre in Paris has signed a deal to help create a modern art museum - dedicated to Arab artists - in an ancient desert city in Saudi Arabia.
The new museum will be based at AlUla, home to ancient tombs and monuments in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, with an opening planned for 2027 or 2028.
The partnership was signed on 12 March by Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon and Nora Aldabal, the artistic director of the Royal Commission for AlUla, in the presence of Saudi and French culture ministers.
The Pompidou will provide "scientific and technical expertise in training staff, particularly in conservation, collection management and mediation", it said.
It may also provide support for "cultural and event programming".
Financial details still to come
The Pompidou will partner with the Royal Commission for AlUla, and they have three months to finalise financial details.
In 2019 Le Bon, then head of the Picasso Museum, was part of a French delegation to the kingdom alongside the culture minister at the time, Franck Riester.
Their visit was controversial, coming just a year after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Turkish embassy.
Riyadh has radically eased social restrictions under de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, though critics say it is a bid to ensure his continued authoritarian rule and distract from human rights abuses.
Paris's Pompidou Centre to get an American outpost near New York Pompidou Centre in Paris, "Notre-Dame of the Pipes", to close for 4-year refit
The Pompidou also told French news agency AFP it may open a branch in South Korea in 2025, with more details due soon.
The museum has plans to open its first North American outpost next year in a renovated industrial building in Jersey City outside New York.
Meanwhile the original Pompidou, which first opened in central Paris in 1977, will close for four years from the end of 2023 for major renovation work.
(with AFP)
Get a daily dose of Paris Guardian news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Paris Guardian.
More InformationCHEYENNE, Wyoming: A Wyoming bill outlawing the use or prescription of medication abortion pills, which was passed by the state's ...
DENVER, Colorado: The Southern Nevada Water Authority has voted to accept a $2.4 million grant from the US Bureau of ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US government has reported that the exceptionally wet winter in California this year will offer relief from ...
FRANKFURT, GERMANY: Authorities said that as part of a crackdown on gangs suspected of blowing up ATM machines and stealing ...
BERLIN, Germany: Germany will send a cabinet minister to visit Taiwan next week, at a time when Berlin is reviewing ...
ZURICH, Switzerland - Depositors will be fully protected, shareholders will have their equity dwarfed, while bond holders will be largely ...
NEW YORK, New York - Wall Street continued its advance on Tuesday as investors continued to weigh up the health ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US State Department has issued a travel warning regarding dangerous fake pills sold at pharmacies in Mexico, ...
FRANKFURT, Germany: The German Automobilwoche magazine has reported that as part of its efforts to switch to selling electric vehicles ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks rallied on Monday following the weekend buy-in of Credit Suisse by UBS, which ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US Federal Reserve Bank has announced that cash-strapped banks throughout the US borrowed some $300 billion during ...
BEIJING, China: Following the inability of China Huarong Asset Management Co Ltd to release financial reporting obligations in 2020, China ...