New York's Museum of Modern Art is relocating for three years while its Manhattan headquarters undergo a $650m (�454m) refit.

The cultural centre will move its collections, including Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, on 21 May.

The new venue, MoMA QNS, is a converted staple factory across the East River in Queens, close to its sister gallery the PS1 Cotemporary Art Center.

It will open on 29 June with three shows, including the continuation of Collection Highlights, featuring works by Matisse, van Gogh, Warhol and Pollock.

MoMA will reopen in 2005 after the massive rebuilding project is completed.

Light-filled

Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi has been commissioned to redesign the museum, with plans for a glass, aluminium and black slate frontage.

The Harvard design graduate has previously worked on the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art in Toyota City and Tokyo Sea Life Park, an aquarium built on landfill.

This is his first commission outside of Japan.

The aim of the redesign is to mesh new concepts with the familiar features such as the sculpture garden.

The building will provide larger, more flexible exhibition space, new galleries, and a lobby with a view of the sculpture garden and a soaring light-filled atrium.

Once completed, MoMA QNS will be closed to the public and used as additional storage space for the museum's expanding collection.

MoMA QNS will hold its first major exhibition in February 2003 with Matisse/Picasso - a study of two 20th Century artists.