PARIS: The Pompidou Center in Paris, one of the world’s top modern art museums, will shut down for refurbishment for five years from 2025, France’s culture minister said Wednesday.
The Pompidou houses work by artists from Pablo Picasso to Wassily Kandinsky and welcomed more than three million visitors last year. But its ground-breaking “inside out” structure by architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, that displays pipework on the outside, has suffered serious wear and tear.
The institution is also facing stiff competition from newer Parisian galleries created by the mega-wealthy Louis Vuitton Foundation and billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault.
Culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said the refurbishment would “enable its survival” and hailed the museum for hosting 300 million visitors since it was opened in 1977.
The Pompidou boasts Europe’s biggest modern art collection and is the world’s leading lender of paintings and sculptures, lending out between 8,000 and 10,000 a year to other museums and galleries.
The building’s first major upgrade in its history will cost 262 million euros ($287 million) and will see the structure updated for fire safety, disability access and general repairs.
On the inside, gallery spaces will be reworked, new areas will be installed for younger visitors and its hugely popular public library will be expanded.
The upgrade was initially planned to run from 2023 to 2027 to allow the building to reopen for its 50th anniversary, but it now will not reopen until 2030.
The Pompidou has sought to boost its coffers recently with international deals, signing an agreement with Saudi Arabia in March to help build a modern art museum at the Al-Ula heritage site.
It already has franchise museums in Shanghai, Brussels and Malaga, Spain, as well as a large outpost in Metz in eastern France.
It is also working with Korean business group Hanwha on a series of exhibitions in Seoul.
France to shut Pompidou museum for five years in 2025
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France to shut Pompidou museum for five years in 2025
- The Pompidou houses work by artists from Pablo Picasso to Wassily Kandinsky and welcomed more than three million visitors last year
- Culture minister Rima Abdul Malak said the refurbishment would "enable its survival"
Lindsay Lohan steps out in Dubai
DUBAI: Dubai-based Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan was spotted in the city this week alongside her husband, Kuwaiti financier Bader Shammas, as the couple stepped out in coordinated black looks.
Lohan was wearing a sleek black long-sleeved mini dress with a high neckline and softly draped silhouette, featuring gathered ruching across the skirt with a tie detail at the waist. She paired the look with pointed black heels and kept her accessories minimal, opting for delicate earrings and a statement ring from Italian fine jewelry label Bijouq.
The couple were attending the opening of Japanese restaurant Nobu’s new outpost at One Za’abeel.
Lohan has been based in Dubai for more than 10 years, where she has built a quieter, more private life away from Hollywood.
She married Shammas in 2022, and the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Luai, in 2023.
The actress has since continued to balance family life in the UAE with her acting career, including her recent return to film and television projects.
Lohan most recently starred in “Freakier Friday,” the Disney sequel to “Freaky Friday,” which was released in August 2025 and marked her return to theatrical film acting alongside Jamie Lee Curtis.
It follows another body-swap chaos — this time across generations. Lohan and Lee Curtis return as Anna and Tess, but the story expands to include Anna’s own daughter, creating a multi-generational switch that complicates family dynamics even further.
The film explores motherhood, identity and how perspectives change as roles reverse again.
Lohan is also set to star in and executive-produce the Hulu limited series “Count My Lies,” an adaptation of Sophie Stava’s novel that is currently in development and marks one of her first major television roles.
She will play Violet Lockhart alongside co-lead Shailene Woodley, who stars as Sloane Caraway, a compulsive liar whose small deceptions land her a job as a nanny for the seemingly perfect Lockhart family. Kit Harington has also joined the cast in a leading role.
As Sloane becomes increasingly entangled in Violet and her husband Jay’s world, hidden secrets begin to unravel, revealing dangerous truths beneath the family’s polished exterior. The series does not yet have an official release date.
