The KANAL-Centre Pompidou Museum, an institution dedicated to modern and contemporary art, is due to open its doors in Brussels in late 2025. But with a regional endowment of €212 million earmarked over the next five years, the Inspectorate of Finance has voiced reservations about its financial feasibility.
The museum will be located in the striking modernist building that once was a Citroën garage. The vision is to establish a hub of culture and exchange that is accessible to all, highlighting Brussels' creative scene and enhancing the city's cultural allure.
Spearheaded by the Brussels-Capital Region, this ambitious undertaking seeks to furnish Brussels with a cultural nucleus that complements its status as the capital of Europe.
This comprehensive project realised in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou over a decade, is not limited to merely housing a museum for modern and contemporary art. It will also encompass the abundant collections of architecture and urbanism from the CIVA Foundation, alongside numerous public spaces designed to serve various functions, including multiple stages for the performing arts.
Culture push
The inception of the KANAL Museum concept was intertwined with the sixth state reform in 2014, which entrusted the regions with endorsing culturally significant initiatives.
Recognising an opportunity to enhance the city's international standing and create a prominent art destination, the Brussels Region embarked on this project, with the added goal of elevating the canal area to a priority development zone.
However, financing the museum has become a contentious issue. The initial draft of the management contract for 2024-2028, initially set at €224 million, was rejected by the Inspectorate of Finance due to perceived extravagance and inadequate planning. A subsequent governmental decision approved a slightly reduced allocation of €212 million. The total project cost by 2028 is projected to be approximately €391.7 million.
Construction work on the KANAL-Centre Pompidou, revealing the old Citroën logo, July 2023. Credit: The Brussels Times
Despite these adjustments, some members of the Brussels Parliament regard the KANAL project as excessive, questioning the financing and voicing concerns about transparency.
Upon closer analysis, the Inspectorate of Finance deemed the KANAL Foundation's multi-year budget unrealistic and disproportionate to the museum's current stage of development.
A price too high to pay?
To make clear the high costs, the museum will be compared to similar museums in terms of average salary per full-time equivalent and taxpayer cost. This comparative study is expected to conclude by April 2024, allowing the subsequent government to reassess the management strategy.
Tensions escalated as Minister-President Rudi Vervoort hit back at the Inspectorate's viewpoint, dismissing it as a simple lack of understanding and apparently ignoring that the document had undergone scrutiny and validation by three inspectors.
The façade before the latest round of construction works commenced. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
The regional endowment for KANAL is allocated across three categories: operational expenses, real estate maintenance, and investment costs. Vervoort argued that it was an oversight to include investment costs in the annual allocation given the ongoing construction and pandemic-induced delays.
He emphasised that beyond 2028, the management contract for KANAL would constitute only a fraction of the regional budget. Advocates of the project contend that it will bring significant cultural value to Brussels although critics call for more prudent development and financing approaches.
