France's famed Centre Pompidou, the largest institution for modern and contemporary art in Europe, has closed its doors due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent, while its Shanghai branch is now welcoming back limited numbers of visitors.

The "Center Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project," the third establishment of the French cultural institution outside the country after those in Malaga and Brussels, reopened to the public on Friday, March 20, after an almost two-month closure over the coronavirus.

According to the museum, only the two main exhibition spaces are currently accessible for a maximum of 500 visitors per day to ensure social distancing.

The temporary exhibition "Observations" in Hall 1, which was originally scheduled to end on March 29, will be extended until the end of April, presenting works by 15 artists from the Centre Pompidou's New Media collection.

The semi-permanent exhibition entitled "The Shape of Time," which displays more than 100 masterpieces by major artists from Musée national d'art moderne, including those of Pablo Picasso and Robert Delaunay, will run through May 9, 2021, in Hall 2 and 3 as planned.

Visitors need to make a reservation via the Art West Bund online platform and present themselves with an electronic ticket showing their health status to enter in the museum. They are required to continue to comply with the health and safety rules in place to combat the epidemic.

"Seeing this museum reopen, so young and full of promise, is in itself a joy. It also shows – and I am delighted – that our Chinese friends have passed most of the ordeal," said Serge Lasvignes, president of the Centre Pompidou, in a press release by the institution.

"And this is about a note of hope: the crisis has an end."

Lasvignes described knowing the reopening of their exhibitions in Shanghai is "a great satisfaction," as he deeply believes in "the social role of art and the help it can bring to everyone's resilience."

Following the coronavirus pandemic and the ban on public gatherings in France, the famous monument set in Paris's 4th arrondissement has been shut down since March 14 with the resumption date waiting for further notice.

Inaugurated on November 5, 2019, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, the collaboration of Paris's Centre Pompidou and Shanghai's West Bund Museum marks a milestone in the Sino-French cultural communication and cooperation, showcasing a project of major artistic and cultural exchange between France and China.

"Long live the friendship of China and France," said Macron in the inauguration, adding, "This is a world premiere [for a Western museum] but it is only a step."

Located in the heart of the new Xuhui Waterfront District, which is growing to be the largest "cultural corridor" in Asia, the Shanghai museum will host an impressive multidisciplinary program during the five years of the partnership signed with the Centre Pompidou.