ARTnews.US [AMERICAN NEWS AGENCY]

By DOREEN CARVAJAL  | ArtsBeat/The New York Times

PARIS — After five years locked in storage or roaming on traveling exhibitions, a trove of Pablo Picasso’s works have been put back on display in their remodeled home, a 17th-century mansion in the Marais district.

On Saturday, the heavy doors of the mansion will swing open to the public, with an appearance by the French president, François Hollande. The day marks the anniversary of Picasso’s birth in 1881 and a new era for the museum, which was remodeled at a cost of more than $60 million and struggled through construction delays, missed openings and an employee revolt against the institution’s former president, Anne Baldassari, who was dismissed last spring.

For a few weeks, though, Ms. Baldassari returned as the curator for the opening exhibition, arranging the paintings in a spare style that reflects her iconoclastic views as a Picasso scholar. In interviews with the French press, she said the public should see his work evolve with “no frills. One should understand Picasso. Here is not a place of fantasy.”

Inside the Picasso Museum in Paris.Musée National Picasso, Paris/Béatrice Hatala

The museum has five exhibition levels to display some of its collection of 5,000 works, mostly owned by Picasso himself and donated by his heirs. In an attic with a view over Paris are paintings by artists including Renoir, Matisse and Modigliani, which were part of Picasso’s personal collection.

Reference: ArtsBeat/The New York Times By DOREEN CARVAJAL