Hanwha finalizes deal to open Pompidou branch in Seoul

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Hanwha Group has finalized the agreement with the Centre Pompidou in France to establish the museum's offshoot branch in Seoul, with the opening set for late 2025, the energy-to-defense conglomerate said Friday.

The formal contract was signed Thursday, under which Hanwha is given the licensing rights to use the French museum's properties for four years upon the opening of the branch, the Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul, Hanwha said.

The Centre Pompidou Hanwha Seoul will be built inside 63 Square, a skyscraper in western Seoul owned by Hanwha. 63 Square will undergo renovation for the construction of the museum.

Hanwha said it plans to open the museum in October 2025.

Hanwha will hold two special exhibitions every year, featuring masterpieces from the Pompidou collections, for which Hanwha will pay brand royalties, rental and other fees as agreed under the terms.

Hanwha has long sought to bring the Pompidou branch to South Korea since 2018 as part of efforts to further engage in art and culture but experienced setbacks amid the global outbreak of COVID-19.

The Centre Pompidou has over 120,000 artworks from the early 1900s to the present, including the collections of Chagall, Matisse, Kandinsky and Picasso.

It has a number of satellite museums around the world, including the one in Spain's Malaga, which opened in 2015, and another in Shanghai that was set up in 2019.

elly@yna.co.kr
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