The Pompidou Center and Saudi Arabia have signed a collaboration agreement for the creation of a future contemporary art museum dedicated to artists from the Arab world in Al-Ula (northwest of the Kingdom), a sign of the strengthening of diplomatic relations between both countries. This has been announced by the Parisian museum this week.
The museum also confirmed that it was considering “an association in South Korea, in Seoul, from 2025”, a file on which it will have to communicate in more detail soon.
The agreement between the Center Pompidou, one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world, and Saudi Arabia, was signed last weekend by Laurent Le Bon, president of the French museum, and Nora Aldabal, director of artistic programming and culture, at 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 press release from the museum.
Its goal is to develop a large-scale museum project dedicated to artists from the Arab world, scheduled to open in 2027-2028 at the Al-Ula site in the northwest of the kingdom.
The Pompidou Center “will bring its scientific and technical expertise to staff training, particularly in terms of conservation, collection management and mediation,” according to the press release.
“It may also intervene in support of the organization of cultural programming and events,” the text adds.
The Ministry of Culture confirmed that the two parties had three months to determine the financial compensation.
At the end of 2019, recalls the newspaper Le Monde, Laurent Le Bon, then director of the Picasso Museum, had been part of the delegation of the then Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, “the only French politician in office who went to Al-Ula one year after the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi”.
