Musée Picasso

Musée Picasso Review

To the chagrin of Picasso fans everywhere, this immensely popular museum closed in August 2009 for a top-to-bottom overhaul. It is set to reopen in three stages, beginning in spring 2012, with a limited selection of sculptures from the museum's permanent holdings—the largest Picasso collection in the world. However, the majority of the museum will not reopen until at least spring 2013. (About 200 works from the permanent collection have been on the road in the United States and elsewhere during the renovation.) The $62 million face-lift will thoroughly transform the Picasso, more than quadrupling the museum's size to 75,000 square feet with new galleries and a performance space. A new 4,800-square-foot building in the back garden, dedicated to temporary exhibitions and other programs, will open when the final stage is completed in spring 2014.

HIGHLIGHTS

The collection of more than 100,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and documents (much of it previously in storage for lack of space) spans Picasso's entire life's work, from the Blue period to Surrealism, when he painted perhaps his most renowned work, the mammoth Guernica, which hangs in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. The Paris collection does not comprise the master's most famous works, but rather "Picasso's Picassos," many of the paintings and sculptures treasured most by the artist, including his personal collection of works by friends and influences such as Matisse, Braque, Cézanne, and Rousseau. There is a detailed overview of Picasso's life and loves, with information in English. The museum opened in 1985 in the regal 17th-century Hôtel Salé as a permanent home for the collection, after much of it was given to the government by the artist's heirs to settle a hefty tax bill after the painter's death in 1973.

TIPS

While the museum projects its reopening for February or March 2012, delays are likely. Check the Web site for updates or call before you go.