For one billion dollars, George Lucas brings storytelling to the museum

Many have commented on the director’s persistence—"used to doing the impossible" but tested by this project. Others marveled at the architecture of this giant white UFO, whose organic shape contrasts with the rigidity of the towers. Some highlighted its major role on the eve of the 2028 Olympic Games. There are even those who noted, during the press presentation, the delightful contrast between a George Lucas in an eternal teenager’s t-shirt and his wife Mellody Hobson, as elegant as the businesswoman she is.

Storytelling, the art of narration, is everywhere, from seemingly trivial anecdotes to the very purpose of this sanctuary designed to celebrate the talent of storytellers, magicians of the pen and brush. The museum indeed weaves multiple narratives where Enki Bilal crosses paths with Frida Kahlo and Darth Vader. For George Lucas, the passion for collecting is shared through dialogue and the rejection of hierarchy.

The narratives are countless—over 40,000 objects—but they give form to the stories that populate our subconscious, to order the world around us. The museum’s innovative spirit lies in engaging the right hemisphere of the brain and favoring analogies, symbols, and images to speak to everyone and take each person on a quest for meaning, nourished by re-enchantment and a fertilized imagination.

Part of George Lucas’s speech to the press received little attention. Yet, he pays tribute to a unifying art, resolutely collective, which gathers people around common beliefs, beings working toward the accomplishment of an ambitious project.

In his encyclical on AI, Magnifica Umanità, the Pope resurrects the biblical story of Nehemiah, who rebuilt Jerusalem by calling each person to contribute according to their talents. "Temple of the people’s art" for George Lucas; "Common home" for Leo XIV. The stories of old continue to illuminate the present through our metaphors.

Behind George Lucas’s monumental project lies the vision of a brilliant entrepreneur who has mastered the art of storytelling. He reminds us that every enterprise must mobilize intuition, imagination, a taste for risk, and novelty. That a project only achieves its scale if it unfolds within the powerful spirit of the collective. That a story exists only to impress its audience and tirelessly, patiently rebuild a human world.