Meters and more square meters to enjoy all this art
He is 33 years old. The Musée d'Orsay , not the donor. Little is known about that anonymous person, except for the amount delivered, €20 million ; nationality, American ; and that he has made it through the American Friends of the Musées d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie (AFMO) . With this sum, the Parisian art gallery will undertake its largest expansion project: the Orsay Grand Ouvert.
Located in an old 19th century train station, this museum, one of the most important in Paris, stands out for housing the largest collection of impressionist paintings in the world that being so big and not stopping growing has made its display area stays small. Let's also add that the number of visitors is constantly increasing.
The Musée d'Orsay prepares for its major expansion project
Thus, an extension was necessary, a transformation that pursues offer a comfortable and renewed experience what happens to achieve that the entire building is used for the collection and is open to the public.
Of course, we will have to wait a bit. Initially until 2023 or 2024 to see how the fourth floor becomes an educational center of 650 square meters, where students from schools, associations and families will meet.
As if it were a school, there the heads of the Musées d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie (AFMO) project make use of the latest advances in digital technology to offer different visions and disciplines. “The idea is to enjoy the pleasure of contemplating, but also of understanding and creating from the quintessential collection of the late nineteenth century, a period that is essential to understand our world today”, explains Laurence des Cars, president of the Institution, in a press release.
In the same period, 2023-2024, the creation of an international research center which, located near the current museum facilities, will include the archives and the library of the art gallery. It will be a space where they come together the necessary tools to deepen the investigation of the greatest artistic period that meets at the Musée d'Orsay (end of the 19th century) and that allows to welcome international students and researchers.
A couple of years later, around 2025 or 2026, is planned the opening of a new wing dedicated to displaying the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection. In this way, the South Zone, which has more than 1,200 square meters and which is currently used as offices, will also be dedicated to exhibiting the exhibition in a new and unique way that allows understand in depth the masterpieces of geniuses such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Cézanne or Van Gogh.
Of course, from the museum they indicate that for Orsay Grand Ouvert be carried out completely they are still looking for private donations.
An anonymous donation will allow this mythical museum to continue growing