Saudi Arabia will contribute €50 million ($52.6 million) to the €262 million renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The money is part of a heritage fund established as part of a years-long collaboration between Saudi Arabia and French culture officials.
The Centre Pompidou, which is considered France‘s top modern and contemporary art museum, will be closed for the overhaul of its exhibition spaces between 2025 and 2030. During that time, exhibitions will be held off-site.
The announcement of the funding promise was made last week by French Culture Minister Rachida Dati and Saudi Culture Minister Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud
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The funding is part of a broader partnership detailed in a ten-agreement package. Dati and Al Saoud also announced nine other cultural deals related to projects in archeology, film, and photography.
As part of the deal, France has pledged to back Saudi Arabia’s development of multiple museum and heritage projects, including a new photography museum in Riyadh linked to programs at the National School of Photography in Arles.
Other projects include restoring Saudi heritage sites, such as royal palaces, with the help of French institutions like the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and OPPIC. The countries seek to further conservation efforts on archaeological projects in Qiddiya, a project backed by the French National Institute for Archaeological Research.
The partnership comes several years after an initial agreement signed by France and Saudi Arabia in 2018 that focuses on the latter’s museums and archaeological sites. That agreement eventually led to the country opening non-religious tourism to the AlUla, a museum of Arabic civilization in a stone-built city in the AlUla Valley.
This project was led by French Agency for AlUla Development (Afalula) as part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan. The strategy, released in 2016, is part of the country’s aims to liberalize its image amid human rights violations, build its economy in non-oil sectors, and boost tourism.