PARIS-The grand doors of the Musée National Picasso Paris will remain closed for another summer, extending a nearly four-year wait for its reopening.
The expansion of the museum, which since 1985 has inhabited the baroque Hôtel Salé, a 17th-century mansion in the Marais district, was expected to be completed this month. It is now scheduled to reopen at the end of 2013 or early 2014, depending on renovation projects involving security, electricity and air conditioning, according to a spokeswoman for the museum.
When it is finally finished, the museum's exhibition space will be tripled, allowing display of more of the museum's 5,000 paintings, drawings, ceramics and photographs. The collection was donated to France by Picasso's heirs to pay off inheritance taxes.
In the past, more than half a million people visited the museum annually, more than 65 percent of them foreigners. The museum expects the total to nearly double when the museum reopens.
Many of its masterpieces - including a portrait of Dora Maar and a reclining nude of Picasso's mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter - have been roving the world on temporary exhibition loans in Madrid, Abu Dhabi, Tokyo, San Francisco and elsewhere.
The tours have helped to finance the renovation, including the acquisition of a building. The total cost is expected to exceed "50 million, or $64 million.
