Picasso museum to open in september

CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS FRENCH CULTURE MINISTRY’S DECISION TO DELAY MUSEUM’S OPENING DATE AFTER FIVE-YEAR RENOVATION FIVE years after it closed for a two-year renovation, Paris's Picasso

museum will finally reopen in September, France's culture ministry has announced. The delay has caused controversy, with the painter's son Claude Picasso accusing the French

government of "indifference" and saying he was "scandalised and very worried" about the future of the museum - which houses one of the world's most extensive

collections of the Spanish master's work. He asked the government to do its best to ensure that the establishment reopens in June, as announced earlier this year by the gallery's

president Anne Baldassari. Jean-Francois Bodin, the architect in charge of the renovation, said on Saturday that the museum could still be reopened at the end of June as scheduled. But

culture minister Aurelie Filipetti said in a statement that her ministry had decided to reopen the museum to the public in mid-September because the main renovations were only completed on

April 30 and time was needed to finish the rest. She appealed, "for everyone to overcome personal interests and show enthusiasm and calm to allow the project to be completed". The

final bill for the refurbishment of the 17th-century baroque mansion in Paris's historic Marais quarter stands at €52m, some €22m more the original budget due to changes in the scope of

the work. The museum's exhibition space will be more than doubled to 40,000 square feet after the renovation. Although the musuem has about 5,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures,

ceramics, photographs and documents, previously only a fraction could be displayed at any one time due to limited space. There will also be a corresponding rise in the number of visitors

that can be admitted at once from 380 to 650, and annual admission figures are expected to jump from 450,000 to 850,000. © AFP/Connexion