Au Revoir, for Now: The Centre Pompidou Shuts for a Five-Year Revamp

With its exoskeleton of colourful pipes and external escalators, the Centre Pompidou has been one of Paris's most loved — and divisive — buildings since 1977. In 2025 it closed for a major, years-long renovation to modernise the ageing structure and strip out asbestos.

During the closure, treasures from its vast modern and contemporary collection — the largest in Europe — will travel to partner venues in France and abroad, keeping the art in public view.

Parisians bid a temporary farewell to 'Beaubourg' with mixed feelings, counting down to the reopening of a 21st-century version of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers's radical icon.

Image: “(Barcelona) La couturière - Suzanne Valadon 1914 - Centre Pompidou Paris” — Didier Descouens, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.