Parisian rail station now art museum

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 49

Parisian rail station now art museum

NZPA-Reuter Paris • A vast steel and glass railway station on the banks of the River Seine has begun a new life as a museum housing some of France’s best known art treasures.

The inauguration of the Musee d’Orsay by President Francois Mitterrand will mark the completion of an eight-year, $3.88 billion project to turn the station — last used as such 46 years ago —- into a showcase for turn-of-the-century art.

The Gare and Hotel d’Orsay, which dominate the Left-Bank of the Seine opposite the Louvre art gallery and Tuileries gardens, were built by the Architect, Victor Laloux, between 1898 and 1900 as a monument to the Industrial Revolution. Transformed into a museum that the authorities hope will attract up to three million visitors a

year, the station now houses most of the Impressionist and Post-Im-pressionist masterpieces, many Rodin sculptures and the best of early French photography, cinema and furniture design.

One of the main attractions will be the Impressionist works, moved across the Seine from the Jeu de Paume museum and now hung in a series of halls overlooking the river.

The museum is also planning concerts and daily film shows.

It “will not only have a permanent collection of paintings, which would have satisfied many, but will hold a whole series of cultural events for a widely varied public,” Jacques Rigaud, president of the State body created to oversee the project, told reporters.

The 200,000 cu m site can accommodate 5600 people. The exterior has been cleaned to reveal its original sparkling white stone. Inside, the main part of the collections, including 2300 paintings, 250 pastels, 1500 sculptures, 1100 art objects and 13,000 photographs, are displayed on three levels built into the sides of the structure. The glass-domed, cathe-dral-like nave that once towered above steamfilled railway platforms has been retained, leaving a 32m high space down the centre.

The project’s Italian architect, Gae Aulenti, designed a sloping central aisle flanked by wide, neo-classic stone columns and lined with statues, creating a slightly Egyptian air that critics say. is like a comic version of the Valley of the Kings.