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The Singapore Pinacotheque de Paris closes its doors

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Pinacotheque de Paris will close from April 11, 2016, the museum announced in a statement released on Friday evening (April 8).

The Singapore outpost of the French museum Pinacotheque de Paris will close its doors next week on April 11. TODAY file photo

The Singapore outpost of the French museum Pinacotheque de Paris will close its doors next week on April 11. TODAY file photo

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SINGAPORE The Singapore Pinacotheque de Paris will close from April 11, 2016, the museum announced in a statement released on Friday evening (April 8). 

"We are disappointed that this project did not succeed due to weaker than expected visitorship and other business and financial challenges faced," the statement read.

Located at the Fort Canning Arts Centre, the Singapore Pinacotheque de Paris had three galleries: A free-access Heritage Gallery, which focused on the history of Singapore and the region; the Permanent Collection Gallery, which exhibited international artworks from the Pinacotheque collection from the likes of Monet, Renoir and Modigliani; and the Features Gallery, which hosted temporary exhibitions, such as The Myth Of Cleopatra and its most recent exhibition, Pressionism, which looked at contemporary graffiti art. 

Meanwhile, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), which had facilitated the Pinacotheque project at the Fort Canning Arts Centre (FCAC) in 2013 as part of its ongoing efforts to grow Singapore’s leisure offerings to offer discerning visitors new experiences. The STB said that the unique proposition of the project was "its concept of exhibiting rarely-seen private collections, and a curatorial direction that juxtaposed artworks of different artists and eras, which enhanced Singapore’s already vibrant arts scene". 

This concept was modelled after the flagship Pinacotheque de Paris museum in France, which was well-received and attracted over 1 million visitors annually, but had closed in Feb 15 this year, due to the "disastrous economic climate" that was brought about by the Nov 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, which, the museum said in a statement then, forced them "to close the Madeleine sites in Paris".

The STB added: "We are disappointed that the Singapore Pinacotheque de Paris did not succeed ... As with all business endeavours, there are unexpected risks and changing external environments. We will continue to welcome proposals that will add value to Singapore’s tourism landscape and will work closely with NParks to identify other meaningful concepts for the FCAC." 

The museum's statement added that despite its closure here, Pinacotheque de Paris remained "keen to enhance the fine art scene in Singapore", and it would continue to evaluate more viable options in Singapore.

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