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Rodin Museum officials have decided to pull out of a €16m project in the Canary Islands, which would have seen an outpost of the famous institution built in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 11 Jan 2023
The €16m project would have seen a Rodin museum outpost built in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Credit: Rodin Museum
A project that would have seen the famous Rodin Museum open a multi-million-euro outpost in the Canary Islands has been scrapped.
Announced last year, the outpost of the Parisian museum was announced to be a cultural destination similar to that of Guggenheim Bilbao and Picasso Museum Malaga.
The museum would have been built at cost to the city, with the €16m (US$17.2m, £14.2m) figure including the acquisition of 83 Rodin sculptures.
Locals in the port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife had long opposed the project, arguing that the French sculptor had no connection to the Spanish islands and that financial projections were exaggerated, indeed exceeding that of the Rodin Museum itself. Vocal critics included major figures in Spanish culture and politics.
The Rodin Museum elected this month to pull out of the project with Amélie Simier, the director of the French museum, saying they were stung by the “lies” against the project.
“We are sensitive to the recent events in your city and to the unfortunate statements by a part of the cultural, academic and political sectors. These lying statements, or at best misinformed, attack our museum - a public establishment of the French Ministry of Culture - and the work of Rodin and his heritage, of which we are guardians,” she wrote, according to a report from The Times.
“We must conclude that the conditions are not currently in place for the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to host an international museum project.”
Museums and galleries
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