Picasso Museum in Aix-en-Provence Canceled Over Contract Dispute

The planned Museo Pablo Picasso in Aix-en-Provence, France, has been halted due to a disagreement between the city and Catherine Hutin-Blay, daughter of Jacqueline Roque and heir to a vast Picasso collection. The museum, which was to open in 2021, would have been housed in the former Couvent des Prêcheurs, sold by the city to Hutin-Blay's company Madame Z for €11.5 million (below the €12.2 million government valuation). The city required a clause mandating the building remain a museum for at least 15 years, which Hutin-Blay refused. Mayor Joissains Masini stated that if she accepts the clause and provides a preliminary list of works, the project could resume. The collection, inherited from Jacqueline Roque (Picasso's last wife, who died in 1986), includes over 2,000 works from Picasso's final two decades (1952–1973), covering paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, and photographs. The museum would have completed a network of Picasso museums in Barcelona, Málaga, Paris, and Antibes. Picasso and Roque met in 1952 at the Madoura pottery workshop in Vallauris, married, and remained together until Picasso's death in 1973.