Serge Lasvignes.
Photo: © Vincent Isidore / IP3 Press / MaxPPP.

Serge Lasvignes, the newly appointed president of the Centre Pompidou, is reportedly in talks with Chinese officials about the possibility of opening up “pop-up Pompidou venues” across the country, according to the Art Newspaper.

On May 15, Lasvignes visited China with Laurent Fabius, the French minister of foreign affairs and international development. Fabius met with Chinese investors in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, according to the French foreign ministry website.

Will Lasvignes follow in the footsteps of the institution’s former president, Alain Seban, who initiated the first pop-up in Spain?

The Centre Pompidou Málaga, with a façade intervention by Daniel Buren
Photo via: Traveller.

This is not the first time the Pompidou has set its sight on China. In 2005, the museum also proposed a joint project with the Guggenheim to build a cultural facility center in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, which fell through. Two years later, Pompidou president Bruno Racine planned to open an outpost in Shanghai’s Huaihai Park. However, plans to move forward with the project were scrapped, according to Jing Daily.

Currently, the museum has two off-shoot sites, including one in northern France, the Pompidou-Metz, and the Centre Pompidou Malaga in southern Spain (see The Centre Pompidou Pops Up in Málaga).

With Asian buyers fast becoming the most active collectors, it is no wonder why such important international institutions such as the Centre Pompidou and the Guggenheim have their eyes on the rapidly growing market (See Chinese Movie Mogul Wang Zhongjun Snaps Up $30 Million Picasso at Goldwyn Sale).