The Centre Pompidou gave up one of its two spaces at the Grand Palais due to what the Paris museum described as “financial constraints faced by both institutions,” according to Le Monde.
The Pompidou had been using two exhibition spaces within the Grand Palais while the modern art museum’s main base is closed for renovations. The space that the Pompidou forfeited was the smaller of the two, but it was being used for programming that remained notable no less.
Indeed, in the fall, while various museums across Paris celebrate the bicentennial of photography this year, the Pompidou planned to mount an exhibition about the medium at the 86,000-square-foot space, known as Gallery 8. Le Monde reported that that show will no longer happen.
One cause for the shift, according to Le Monde, was a lack of attendance for shows mounted in Gallery 8 such as one for the collection of Art Brut works owned by filmmaker Bruno Decharme. The Grand Palais also reportedly faced a financial shortfall of about €10 million ($11.6 million) in 2025; a recent renovation effort also went overbudget.
Didier Fusillier, the Grand Palais’s president, told Le Monde that there was “no turf war” with the Pompidou, adding, “How can the Grand Palais operate in a sustainable way? That’s a question we have to ask ourselves now, not in 10 years.”
A Pompidou representative told Le Monde that “given the financial constraints faced by both institutions, a joint decision was made to focus the partnership on the major exhibition circuit, which will host the Matisse and Cézanne shows in 2026.”
A Pompidou-organized Hilma af Klint survey—the first ever staged in Paris—is currently on tap at Gallery 8, with plans to open in May. That exhibition continues to appear on the Pompidou’s website, though it is not listed on the Grand Palais’s site, which does list the forthcoming Matisse show, opening on March 24.
ARTnews has reached out to a representative for the Pompidou and the Grand Palais for comment.
