Swiss Chaplin Museum project delayed again

The opening of “Chaplin’s World”, a museum devoted to Charlie Chaplin, has been postponed until 2014, it has been revealed.

Promoters have been trying for years to turn the comedian’s old home in Corsier-sur-Vevey overlooking Lake Geneva into a museum. Launched in 2002, the SFr55 million ($60 million) project has been plagued by legal opposition and funding issues.

It had originally been hoped to open the museum in 2007 – the 30th anniversary of Chaplin’s death.

A construction permit was finally granted in June 2010 and the organisers had hoped to start work this year and welcome fans of the cinema legend in 2013 – up to 300,000 of them per year – but the date has now been pushed back to 2014.

“We are waiting for confirmation of a SFr10 million loan from canton Vaud,” promoter Philippe Meylan told the Swiss News Agency, confirming a report in the Sonntag newspaper.

He said the process had been delayed following the death of Vaud minister Jean-Claude Mermoud.

“Half of the loan must be approved and then validated by the communes on the [Lake Geneva] Riviera,” he said, adding that construction work, which would take 18 months, could only start when this cantonal loan is guaranteed.

The Domaine de Ban at Corsier-sur-Vevey was home to Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin and his large family from 1953 until his death on Christmas Day 1977.