Officials in New Jersey, the US state just west of New York City, have withdrawn millions in promised funding to Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, a project with the famous Modern and contemporary art museum in Paris that would have seen a satellite location built in Jersey City, the state’s second-largest city.
On Saturday, New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) sent a letter to Centre Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon informing him that the state would be unable to fulfill its end of the deal after agreeing to pay tens of millions to the project, according to the New Jersey Monitor.
“While we are honoured that Jersey City was selected as the first North American location for a Centre Pompidou facility, we have decided to pause this project indefinitely,” wrote Tim Sullivan, the chief executive of the NJEDA. He cited ongoing impacts of Covid-19 and “multiple global conflicts” on the supply chain, along with rising costs and a $19m operating deficit.
New Jersey lawmakers allocated $24m for the project in the 2024 budget and $18m from the 2020 budget. Those funds have instead been reallocated to the state’s general fund after the state legislature rescinded financial support, according to a letter from the New Jersey Department of State obtained by the New Jersey Monitor. That agency has already disbursed $6m to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency for the Centre Pompidou. In the letter, the Department of State asked for the funds to be returned before August.
Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop—who is in the race to become governor of New Jersey in 2025—alleges the decision to pull the funding for the museum project is retaliation against him after he retracted his endorsement of the wife of current New Jersey governor Phil Murphy’s wife Tammy Murphy, who was running for the US Senate.
“Absolutely nothing changed in this project from what the Governor and First Lady knew initially and what they reference now, and there is plenty of documentation to support our point,” said Fulop’s spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, according to the New Jersey Monitor. “The only thing that changed is the politics in New Jersey and the First Lady’s failed candidacy.” (Tammy Murphy withdrew from the race in March.)
Jersey City officials will meet with partners over the next week to “see if there is a path forward”, Wallace-Scalcione added.
Centre Pompidou x Jersey City was first announced in 2021 as a “multidisciplinary art laboratory” with cultural and educational programming in the Journal Square neighbourhood. Roughly a 20-minute train ride from Manhattan in New York, officials said they hoped the exhibition of work from Centre Pompidou’s world-renowned collection would draw in crowds from the city to New Jersey. The project was sharply criticised by New Jersey Republicans, who called the development a “a circus of waste and excess”.
At the time the Jersey City project was announced, the Centre Pompidou already had locations in Brussels; Metz, France; Shanghai; and Malaga, Spain. Projects in Saudi Arabia and South Korea are now in the works. The famous Paris museum will begin closing in autumn for a five-year renovation period, a plan that has caused controversy among the city’s creatives.
