The Centre Pompidou and Saudi Arabia have signed a partnership agreement for the creation of a future museum of contemporary art dedicated to artists from the Arab world in Al-Ula (north-west of the Kingdom), a sign of a warming of diplomatic relations between the two countries, we learned Wednesday, March 15, from the Parisian museum.
The museum also confirmed to AFP that it was considering "a partnership in South Korea, in Seoul, from 2025", a file on which it should communicate in more detail soon.
The agreement between the Centre Pompidou, one of the world's leading museums of modern and contemporary art, and Saudi Arabia, was signed last weekend by Laurent Le Bon, president of the French museum, and Nora Aldabal, director of artistic and cultural programming of the Royal Commission, in the presence of the Saudi Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Farhan Al Saud, and his French counterpart Rima Abdul Malak, said a statement from the museum.
It aims to develop a large-scale museum project dedicated to artists from the Arab world, scheduled to open in 2027-2028 on the site of Al-Ula, in the northwest of the kingdom.
The Centre Pompidou "will bring its scientific and technical expertise in staff training, particularly in conservation, collections management and mediation," according to the statement.
"It will also be able to intervene in support of the organization of cultural and event programming," adds the text.
The culture ministry confirmed to AFP that the two sides had three months to determine financial compensation.
At the end of 2019, recalls the newspaper Le Monde, Laurent Le Bon, then director of the Picasso Museum, was part of the delegation of the Minister of Culture at the time, Franck Riester, "the only French politician in office to go to Al-Ula a year after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi".
With AFP
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