As the Centre Pompidou celebrates its 30th anniversary, the art world is sprinting off in hundreds of directions. In 2008 the Centre will open a satellite in Metz, expanding its exhibition space and audience. With the marketplace splintered by an increasing number of art fairs, private collectors with burgeoning purses, and new art forms composed of light and air, corralling the many moods of contemporary art is the job of Alfred Pacquement, the Centre’s no-nonsense director.

WITHIN THE LAST THREE DECADES, THE ART MARKET HAS BOOMED, LED BY PRIVATE COLLECTORS. HOW HAVE EMERGING PRIVATE MUSEUMS AND COLLECTORS IN FRANCE AND EUROPE, THE U.S. AND ELSEWHERE AFFECTED THE MISSION OF PUBLIC COLLECTIONS LIKE THE CENTRE POMPIDOU?

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Our role is to inform the public about the art of our times—the 20th and 21st centuries—and collect art works of importance. Private collectors compete with public collections—Lauder’s acquisition of Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” [$135 million, reportedly] for example, comes to mind. It is part of the life of a museum to have relationships with private collectors. Eventually, collectors will obtain tax deductions for museum gifts, or lend works through friendship or professional relationships to museums. A collector who has devoted his life to a particular thread of art history is part of the family.

BUT HOW WILL MUSEUMS DEAL WITH INCREASING PRICES FOR MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART?

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It’s terrible for museums! You have to face it ... and go where art is less expensive. I would have loved to buy Rauschenberg’s “Rebus” from the François Pinault Collection, but that went to MoMA (for $30 million). MoMA can sell works to buy new ones and has the capacity to negotiate with collectors. We never sell pieces from our collection. We have a permanent budget from the State and have to face a fiscal reality: $2.1 million annually. But we do have a Patron and a “Friends of the Pompidou” program. We also have the dation, [system of gifting to the museum] which is efficient in bringing works into the Centre Pompidou’s collection. A new system of acquisition of National treasures allows a 90 percent tax deduction of the purchase price. Thanks to this new program, we acquired the collection of avant-garde magazines from Lagardaire [publishing company] for $5 million. The Centre has more than 58,000 works in its permanent collection—the majority of those works are on paper.

THE EMERGENCE OF COMPUTER-CREATED DIGITAL ART IS CLEARLY CHANGING THE CONTEMPORARY ART WORLD. HAS THE WORK OF ART CHANGED SINCE THE POMPIDOU BEGAN 30 YEARS AGO?

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Art is changing all the time. Thirty years ago there were a limited number of artworks incorporating projections, for example. There were no digital works. Bruce Nauman’s current works involve many projectors, and this plays a strong role in displaying art. We’re constantly trying to support these new forms.

THERE ARE MORE YOUNG ARTISTS WORKING THAN EVER BEFORE. WHAT ROLE—PARTICULARLY COMMERCIALLY SPEAKING—DOES THE MUSEUM PLAY IN “MAKING” THEIR CAREERS?

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I disagree that the museum would or should help artists commercially. Some collectors are much more efficient in this regard. Saatchi in London or Pinault in Paris or Venice make those artists much more commercially attractive. Art fairs, too, are more and more important for artists. A museum helps confirm some choices, but it is not so automatic.

DO YOU PERSONALLY COLLECT ART?

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I’m a public collector, not a private collector. But my preferred works of art are the ones I’ll buy next month. It’s impossible to choose one when you’re surrounded by so many masterpieces. I’m devoted to what will happen next. I don’t think the role of a museum is to discover art but to support it. Discovering art is the role of art critics and art dealers. We’re here to affirm artists.