The Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou was inaugurated by French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on January 31, 1977. Former president Georges Pompidou, who died on April 2, 1974, initiated the project because he wanted to provide Paris with "[...] a center for the arts extraordianire". He commissioned architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers to construct a building combining a museum of modern art, a national library and the Institut de recherche et de création artistique (IRCAM).
