MoMA, the Centre Pompidou and Hong Kong’s M+ have formed a three-museum cultural alliance to make their collections and expertise more accessible across New York, Paris and Hong Kong. The framework agreement, signed at M+ on October 30, 2026, sets out cooperation on collection sharing, exhibitions, research and conservation while leaving each museum independent.
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What the agreement covers
The alliance is intended to let each museum bring works from the other collections to its audiences, develop exhibitions and programs together, and deepen collaboration in curatorial research and conservation.
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17 The idea has also been described as treating the institutions’ holdings as a shared, curated collection—not as a transfer of ownership or a merger.
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Reporting describes the arrangement as involving extended loans and no financial transactions between the museums. It contrasts that approach with fee-based museum franchises and the repeated circulation of blockbuster touring shows.
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27 Those descriptions characterize the alliance’s model; the public excerpts available here do not provide the full legal terms or a detailed loan schedule.
The alliance was announced by MoMA director Christophe Cherix, Centre Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon and M+ director Suhanya Raffel. The agreement was signed at M+ in the presence of trustees and stakeholders from the three museums, although the available reporting does not give a complete attendee list.
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Goals, independence and reach
The museums’ stated aim is to bring their collections to wider audiences and build shared programs and research across the three institutions.
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17 One report frames the partnership as an effort to broaden how modern and contemporary art is understood, including challenging Western-centric narratives.
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This is a collaboration, not a single merged museum: reporting says each institution will retain its independence and identity.
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18 The institutional announcement cites a combined annual in-person audience of 10 million.
14 A 125 million online-audience figure is not confirmed in the cited announcement excerpts, so it should not be treated here as a verified reach estimate.
M+ announced the alliance during its fifth-anniversary period.
1 It also builds on an earlier M+–MoMA memorandum of understanding signed in February 2025; M+ described a 2026 project as the first realized through that agreement.
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Projects announced so far
- Kandinsky exhibition and symposium: A report on the alliance says the museums announced a joint Kandinsky exhibition for 2028, a symposium in 2027 and continuing research collaboration. The available excerpt does not specify the exhibition’s venues or give further confirmed details about the symposium.
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- M+ Facade works in France: In a separate announcement, M+ said a selection of works by contemporary artists drawn from fifteen M+ Facade commissions would be presented in 2027 at the rooftop Belvedere of Centre Pompidou Francilien–fabrique de l’art.
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The sources available here do not establish a complete timetable for reciprocal long-term loans, a three-museum exhibition touring all three venues, participation in MoMA’s C-MAP research program, or the proposed steering-committee schedule. Specific claims about those arrangements should wait for fuller institutional details.
The significance—and the limits of what is known
The alliance’s central shift is from one-off exchanges toward sustained cooperation: the museums intend to share access to collections and work together on exhibitions, scholarship and conservation.
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5 If carried through, that model could make works and curatorial perspectives available to audiences beyond the museum that owns them, while preserving the institutions’ distinct identities.
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For now, the broad framework and some early projects are public, but many operational details remain unclear. The strongest confirmed picture is a long-term, non-commercial collaboration—not a legal merger, a new branch museum or a fully specified calendar of exhibitions and loans.
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