The Centre Pompidou’s planned Jersey City museum was put in jeopardy on Saturday after New Jersey politicians withdrew funding for the institution, citing financial unsustainability.
The institution, one of several international satellites operated by the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, was originally scheduled to begin welcoming visitors in 2024, but its opening date was pushed back a few years.
Officially called Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, the 58,000-square-foot museum will be the first Centre Pompidou branch to open in North America, following the opening of other branches in China and Belgium.
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The total cost of the Jersey City branch of the Centre Pompidou has long been a subject of controversy, but a year ago, Republican politicians in the state began suggesting that it might cost more than $200 million to open, with more than $50 million of that coming from taxpayers’ pockets. Then, earlier this year, state agencies began expressing concerns about the recurring costs of keeping the museum open.
Saturday, New Jersey Observer Reports say the Jersey City Economic Development Authority has officially sent a letter to the Pompidou Centre stating that it will no longer fund the Jersey City Museum, and the museum’s CEO Tim Sullivan has announced its dissolution.
“While we are honored that Jersey City has been chosen as the Centre Pompidou’s first North American venue, we have decided to suspend the project indefinitely,” Sullivan wrote in a letter obtained by the Centre Pompidou. New Jersey Observer“Due to the ongoing supply chain impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple global conflicts, rising costs, unbridgeable operational gaps, and the corresponding fiscal burden it would impose on New Jersey taxpayers, the Legislature has withdrawn financial support, forcing us to determine that this project is unfortunately no longer viable.”
The Jersey City Redevelopment Authority also said on Saturday it would no longer provide $18 million to the museum. The agency is demanding that the Pompidou return $6 million in government funding it has received.
A spokesman for the Centre Pompidou did not respond to a request for comment.
