New Paris museum to house billionaire's modern art
Apr 27, 2016 18:48:39 GMT
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Post by IggyWiggy on Apr 27, 2016 18:48:39 GMT
New Paris museum to house billionaire's modern art collection
François Pinault will house his extensive art collection in the Bourse de Commerce, Paris.
One of the world’s biggest private art collections is to be housed in a new Paris museum close to the Louvre.
François Pinault, the luxury goods billionaire who also owns Christie’s auction house, is taking over the Bourse de Commerce in the capital to show his €1.2bn collection of modern masters.
The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who negotiated the deal, described the museum as “an immense gift to the heart of Paris”.
Pinault, 79, has amassed an enormous collection of work from artists including Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst. He displays them at his private museums in Venice after failing for decades to find a suitable home for them in Paris.
“I am delighted, it’s a big plus for the city,” Hidalgo said, pointing out that the new museum was also near the Pompidou Centre, home to Europe’s biggest contemporary art collection.
François Pinault, his son François-Henri Pinault and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo talk together after announcing plans for the new museum.
She praised Pinault and his business rival, France’s richest man Bernard Arnault – who opened his own Frank Gehry-designed Louis Vuitton Foundation for his art collection last year – for helping to put Paris back on the modern art map.
“It is great to have our captains of industry helping to fly our colours. With this and the Fiac art fair, Paris is regaining its place in contemporary art,” she said.
The historic grain exchange being taken over by Pinault is part of a €1bn project to give what Hidalgo calls a “new beating heart” to the city’s Les Halles district.
Paris’s 19th-century central market was bulldozed in the 1970s to make way for an airless underground shopping complex and transport hub, which most of its residents loathe.
But a vast steel and glass canopy unveiled this month by Hidalgo to solve the problem has also been derided, with the Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright calling it a “custard-coloured flop”.
Under the terms of the deal, Pinault and his family will be given a 50-year lease on the building, which they must also renovate. It was not revealed how much the work would cost or how much rent he will pay.
Very Hungry God skull sculpture by Subodh Gupta, owned Pinault.
In 2001, Pinault handed the reins of his empire – which includes Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Puma and Balenciaga – to his son François-Henri, who is married to the Mexican Hollywood star Salma Hayek.
Since then, the man once described as the most powerful in the art world has mostly dedicated himself to his collection, installing it in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice and two other historic buildings in the city.
They will work in tandem with the new Paris gallery, which will open in 2018, sources close to the collector said.
Pinault had tried for years to build a museum on the site of an old Renault car factory on the Ile Seguin in the middle of the Seine, west of Paris, but gave up in 2005 after a series of planning delays.
www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/27/new-paris-museum-francois-pinault-modern-art-collection-france
François Pinault will house his extensive art collection in the Bourse de Commerce, Paris.
One of the world’s biggest private art collections is to be housed in a new Paris museum close to the Louvre.
François Pinault, the luxury goods billionaire who also owns Christie’s auction house, is taking over the Bourse de Commerce in the capital to show his €1.2bn collection of modern masters.
The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who negotiated the deal, described the museum as “an immense gift to the heart of Paris”.
Pinault, 79, has amassed an enormous collection of work from artists including Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst. He displays them at his private museums in Venice after failing for decades to find a suitable home for them in Paris.
“I am delighted, it’s a big plus for the city,” Hidalgo said, pointing out that the new museum was also near the Pompidou Centre, home to Europe’s biggest contemporary art collection.
François Pinault, his son François-Henri Pinault and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo talk together after announcing plans for the new museum.
She praised Pinault and his business rival, France’s richest man Bernard Arnault – who opened his own Frank Gehry-designed Louis Vuitton Foundation for his art collection last year – for helping to put Paris back on the modern art map.
“It is great to have our captains of industry helping to fly our colours. With this and the Fiac art fair, Paris is regaining its place in contemporary art,” she said.
The historic grain exchange being taken over by Pinault is part of a €1bn project to give what Hidalgo calls a “new beating heart” to the city’s Les Halles district.
Paris’s 19th-century central market was bulldozed in the 1970s to make way for an airless underground shopping complex and transport hub, which most of its residents loathe.
But a vast steel and glass canopy unveiled this month by Hidalgo to solve the problem has also been derided, with the Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright calling it a “custard-coloured flop”.
Under the terms of the deal, Pinault and his family will be given a 50-year lease on the building, which they must also renovate. It was not revealed how much the work would cost or how much rent he will pay.
Very Hungry God skull sculpture by Subodh Gupta, owned Pinault.
In 2001, Pinault handed the reins of his empire – which includes Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Puma and Balenciaga – to his son François-Henri, who is married to the Mexican Hollywood star Salma Hayek.
Since then, the man once described as the most powerful in the art world has mostly dedicated himself to his collection, installing it in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice and two other historic buildings in the city.
They will work in tandem with the new Paris gallery, which will open in 2018, sources close to the collector said.
Pinault had tried for years to build a museum on the site of an old Renault car factory on the Ile Seguin in the middle of the Seine, west of Paris, but gave up in 2005 after a series of planning delays.
www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/27/new-paris-museum-francois-pinault-modern-art-collection-france