Staff at Centre Pompidou Strike Ahead of Planned Closure

Workers at the Centre Pompidou in Paris went on strike October 16, forcing the museum to close for the day. Striking staff included members of the National Union of Museums and Estates, which operates under the aegis of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of France’s five top national trade unions. At issue is staff job precarity during the institution’sscheduled five-year closure, to take place from 2025 to 2030, while its Renzo Piano/Richard Rogers–designed home undergoes a major renovation and expansion. Roughly 1,000 workers ranging from conservators to administrators to front-of-house staff will be affected by the closure, about which they say museum officials have been opaque.RelatedHELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION SUED FOR “DESTROYING” PAINTER’S LEGACYBMA CREATES PAID INTERNSHIPS HONORING VALERIE MAYNARD According to the CGT, the institution’s management had met with representatives from the French government and those from the trade unions to ensure that workers would retain their jobs but had been unable to achieve satisfactory results. “After numerous meetings, the Culture Ministry and the presidency of the Centre Pompidou are unable to tell us when, how, and where the workers, the museum collections, and all the activities that give the center its identity will go,” said the CGT in astatement.“This lack of direction forces us to strike to get out of this opacity and obtain the means to continue to give you access to the Centre Pompidou.” Besides temporarily shuttering the museum, the daylong strike additionally necessitated the relocation of the ceremony attending the presentation of the 2023 Marcel Duchamp Prize, which was won by Palestinian Swedish artist Tarik Kiswanson.

Kiswanson, who won for work investigating “topics related to memory and heritage, timidity and belonging, but also. . .metamorphosis,” topped a short list that also included Bertille Bak, Bouchra Khalili, and Massinissa Selmani. The honor, administered by the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art, is considered France’s most prestigious contemporary art prize.

This year’s iteration was presented at Parisian auction house Artcurial..