Kering’s Pinault ready to open Paris art museum
Founder and honorary chairman of luxury group Kering, François Pinault, will fulfil his dream of opening a private Paris art museum dedicated to his personal collection of post-1960s art when the doors to the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection open on May 22.
Previously, Mr Pinault’s collection was housed in Venice.
Situated within a former eighteenth-century, heritage-listed grain exchange near Les Halles in the centre of the French capital, the Tadao Ando-designed space - which reportedly cost Mr Pinault €160 million ($195 million) to transform - has in fact been leased from Paris City Hall on a 50-year rental basis.
Mr Ando therefore had to work to the very strict rules of the historic buildings and heritage authorities, the museum’s director, Martin Béthenod, told reporters. The reversibility of the architectural work was a condition of the lease agreement, he said, with the rental costing €15 million ($18 million) upfront, plus another €60,000 ($73,000) annually and a share in yearly ticket sales.
Mr Béthenod further added that up to 90% of the atrium and upper exhibition spaces had “never been seen before”.
Mr Pinault, whose earlier plans to build a museum on an island in the River Seine three miles from the Eiffel Tower were scuppered by planning and legal rows, personally selected the artworks to be exhibited for the opening.
The collection of Kering’s founder, who is also the owner of Christie’s auction house, contains more than 10,000 works of painting, sculpture, video, photography, sound installation and performance art by approximately 380 contemporary artists including Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Marlene Dumas.
A wax replica of Giambologna’s sixteenth-century sculpture Abduction of the Sabine Women by Urs Fischer, which Mr Fischer reinterpreted as a four-metre-high candle, will be set alight on May 22 and burn for the six months of the museum’s initial exhibition.
“I want to share my passion for contemporary art with as many people as possible,” Mr Pinault said. “I want the museum to be a place where people feel better at the exit than they did at the entrance.
“For years I have longed to be able to show my collection in Paris, the city I love. This is why the inauguration of the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection is of such special and symbolic importance for me. Paris is not only the city of passion, first and foremost, it is the natural home of artists, of their creative genius and their beliefs.”
A 7,000-square-metre area will be open to the public, complete with a restaurant under the direction of Michelin-starred chef Michel Bras on an upper level and a 284-seat auditorium in the basement.
Image: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, Niney et Marca Architectes, agence Pierre-Antoine Gatier.
