Head of Brussels Government Seeks to Oust Kanal-Centre Pompidou Director Ahead of November Opening

The plot thickens just a few months away from the grand opening of Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels. Amid criticism that the European capital’s forthcoming and only major modern and contemporary art museum is too large and costly for taxpayers, La Libre reports that the head of Brussels’ local government wants Kanal-Centre Pompidou’s founding general director Yves Goldstein out.

On Thursday, Minister-President Boris Dilliès of the center-right francophone Movement Réformateur (MR) party reportedly surprised members of the Brussels-Capital Region government, which he has led since February, when he announced he is seeking Goldstein’s immediate dismissal. After left-leaning political leaders voiced their opposition, Dilliès reportedly backed down, but nevertheless presented Goldstein with an ultimatum: either leave now, or stay until the museum’s opening, but with drastically reduced responsibilities. In the latter scenario, the Kanal-Centre Pompidou director would be barred from board meetings, managing the budget, or serving on a jury to select his successor. At the time of writing, it was unclear if a decision was reached.

For over a decade and through a series of crises, Goldstein has run Kanal-Centre Pompidou, which cost the regional government over $290 million to build. In May, Goldstein had already announced he would step down once the institution was up and running, having completed his mission. However, that was apparently not soon enough for Dilliès, who has reportedly taken issue with Goldstein’s involvement in selecting Kanal’s next director.

According to La Libre, Dilliès wants to assert political control over the institution that was spearheaded by the Socialist Party. The latter lost control of the Brussels region’s coalition government in the last election. “The government financed 100 percent of the museum, while Yves Goldstein contributed nothing financially,” said an unnamed source. “It is therefore not for him to decide the project’s future, particularly since his vision no longer corresponds at all to that of the new majority.” The source added, “Kanal has to be saved.”

Kanal-Centre Pompidou was conceived to become a “city within a city” spanning a massive 430,000 square feet and located in a former, renovated Citroën car garage bordering the low-income neighborhood of Molenbeek. But the new Brussels museum, which struck a €12 million ($13.76 million) partnership agreement with the Centre Pompidou in Paris in exchange for access to its collection for the next five years, was also designed to heavily rely on public funding, now in much shorter supply. Initially promised an annual budget of €35 million ($40 million) from the Brussels-Capital Region government, that number is already down to €28 million ($32.1 million) this year, and it is expected to drop to €10 million ($11.5 million) annually by 2029, as part of broader austerity measures. Goldstein told ARTnews this summer that for the kind of ambitious museum he helped build, “it’s not possible to do it with €10 million.”

According to La Libre, Brussels lawmakers blame Goldstein for Kanal’s “maximalist” museum model, but see it as a potential asset if redirected. The question now remains: How to sustainably fund it, and to what extent does Kanal need to change to do so?