The Centre Pompidou's planned outpost in southern Brazil has slipped again. Centre Pompidou Paraná, in the city of Foz do Iguaçu, is now targeting an opening in 2029, according to a report in the Art Newspaper — the second delay for a project initially meant to open next year and later pushed to 2028. Construction has not yet begun, and a planned call for bids has reportedly been pushed back from its expected date next month.

A Pompidou spokesperson told the paper the project is "currently working toward an opening in 2029 and is in the technical preparatory stages for the bidding process." A likely reason for the slippage is political: the original deal was signed last year by Paraná governor Carlos Massa Ratinho Junior, with investment of close to $50 million. After an election earlier this month, the state administration passed to Sergio Moro — the former federal judge best known for the Lava Jato investigation that led to the imprisonment of current Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a conviction later annulled. Moro pledged during his campaign to continue the museum project.

The spokesperson framed the extended timeline as deliberate: the goal is to ensure the outpost is "established as a state cultural policy, rather than merely an initiative tied to a specific administration."

The stakes are considerable. The site sits near Iguazu Falls, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984 that draws some two million tourists a year. The proposed building was designed by the Paraguayan architect Solano Benítez, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, and the museum is expected to attract around 800,000 visitors annually — the Pompidou's first outpost in the Americas.