The museum reopened in October 2019 after a €10 million redesign by h2o architectes.[5]
Programs
The museum collections include about 15,000 works from art movements of the 20th century. Exhibitions highlight the European and international art scenes of the 20th century, as well as displaying monographic and thematic exhibitions of trends in today's art. Temporary exhibitions run every six weeks.[4]
Collections
The museum's permanent collection includes works by:
Robert Delaunay, 1912, La Ville de Paris, oil on canvas, 267 × 406 cm
André Lhote, 1913, L'Escale, oil on canvas, 210 x 185 cm
Raoul Dufy, 1914, Le Cavalier arabe (Le Cavalier blanc), oil on canvas, 66 x 81 cm. At the outbreak of World War I this painting was confiscated from the collection of Wilhelm Uhde by the French state and sold at Hôtel Drouot in 1921
Amedeo Modigliani, c.1918, The woman with blue eyes, oil on canvas, 81 x 54 cm
Robert Delaunay, 1915, Nu à la toilette (Nu à la coiffeuse), oil on canvas, 140 × 142 cm
Jean Metzinger, L'Oiseau Bleu (left), André Lhote, L'Escale and Dance (center), Albert Gleizes, Les Baigneuses (right), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, March 2014
The theft was investigated by the Brigade de Répression du Banditisme specialist unit of the French Police.[8] It is unclear why the alarm systems in the museum failed to detect the robbery, staff only noticing when they arrived at the museum just before 7:00 am.[8][11]
For fear that investigators were closing in on the thief, accomplices apparently destroyed the paintings.[12] "I threw them into the trash," cried Yonathan Birn, one of three people on trial in the case, "I made the worst mistake of my existence." However, neither the judge nor other defendants believed Birn's statement. The authorities believe all of the paintings were removed from France. Birn's co-defendants testified he was "too smart" to destroy €100 million worth of artwork.[13] The French auctioneer and president of the Association du Palais de Tokyo [fr], Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, commented, "These five paintings are unsellable, so thieves, sirs, you are imbeciles. Now return them."
The theft follows the $162 million heist of masterpieces by Cézanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet from Foundation E.G. Bührle in Zurich in February 2008 and could be one of the biggest art thefts in history (by value). It has been described as the "heist of the century".[9][14][15]
Amedeo Modigliani, 1919, La Femme à l'Éventail (Woman with a Fan), 1919, oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm
References
^Gagneux, Dominique (2012). Musée d'Art Moderne. Collection ART DECO. Paris Musée, Les collections de la ville de Paris 2012. p. 66. ISBN978-2-7596-0188-2.